12,6 Examination of an Infer tpt'ton

luded to names not to numbers, the fecond article of inquiry iliall be after infcriptions, carved, punched, or {tamped, on ftone, or wood, on brafs, or other metal, in which the whole date of the year is unqueftionably given in Arabic figures. Perhaps I fhall be thought too venturous when I fuggeft a belief that of the fourteenth cen- tury no fuch infcription, or fac fimile, can be exhibited ; and that the numbers even of the fucceeding century will be found compa- ratively few. To abate the furprife that this infmuation may at firft excite, it mould be confidered that neither in Dugdale's Hif- tory of St. Paul's Cathedral, nor in Sepulchral Monuments, is there a tomb-ftone^or tablet of the fourteenth century that bears thefe numerals. The,firft date of this kind that has, it feems, oc- curred to you, is i#5 ft (1454) on a brafs plate on a tomb in Ware church, in memory of Elen Cook. In feveral county and more local hiftories there are, indeed, fun- dry epitaphs printed in the common figures; but I am aflured in many inftances, and I rather fufpecT; it to be true in all, that from negligence, or expedition and convenience, the firft copiers of them, or the fubfequent tranfcribers, or the printers, have made ufe of thefe figures inftead of Roman numerals. But had the artifts who engraved the infcriptions on brafs plates been well acquainted with the Arabic figures, (and if in general ufe their ignorance of them is unlikely) would they not have adopted thefe characters when the fhone, or the brafs-plate, on which they were to work was fo fcanty as not to allow fufficient room for all they wifhed to infert ? Abbreviations were almoft always necefifary, and we therefore find that the initials only of the Roman characters were employed ; and in not a few we meet with millo, or millefimo, for the thou- fandth year, and a competent number of c s for the centuries. Poffibly it may be urged, that as the epitaphs were compofed in Latin, the numerals in that tongue were moft fuitable. We, how- ever, find them in manufcripts upon very different fubiecls, and J i . 5 written