* * * * *
_Ecclesiastical Year_ (No. 24. p. 381.).--"NATHAN" is informed, that,
according to the legal supputation, until A.D. 1752, the year of Our
Lord in that part of Great Britain called England, began on the 25th
day of March, as he will find stated in the 24 Geo. II. c. 23., by
which Act it was enacted, that the 1st day of January next following
the last day of December, 1751, should be the first day of the year
1752; and that the 1st day of January in every year in time to come
should be the first day of the year.
Philippe de Thaun, in his _Livre des Créatures_, which was written in
the first half of the twelfth century, p. 48. of the edition published
for the Historical Society of Science, has some remarks which may
interest your correspondent, that are thus literally translated by Mr.
Wright:--
"In March, the year ought always to begin,
According to that explanation which we find in the book,
That in the twelve kalends of April, as your understand,
Our Creator formed the first,
Where the sun always will begin his course,
But at all times we make the year begin in January,
Because the Romans did so first;
We will not un-make what the elders did."