"_Note._--The supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church
of England beginneth the five-and-twentieth day of March."
This note does not now appear in our Prayer Books, being omitted, I
suppose, in consequence {421} of the adoption of the new style in
England in 1752. The daily course of lessons used to begin, as it does
now, with the Book of Genesis and of St. Matthew, in January; the
collects, epistles, and gospels with those for Advent.
M.
Oxford.
_Paying through the Nose_ (No. 21. p. 335.).--I have always understood
this to be merely a degenerated pronunciation of the last word. Paying
through _the noose_ gives the idea so exactly, that, as far as the
etymology goes, it is explanatory enough. But whether _that_ reading has
an historical origin may be another question. It scarcely seems to need
one.