CHRONOGRAMS.

A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which occur words, containing, as initial letters or otherwise, letters that represent the Roman numerals. In some chronograms the initial letters only are counted as forming the solution of the puzzle, but in others all the letters contained which may be used as Roman numerals are taken into account. History supplies us with many first-rate chronograms; in fact, it was once the custom to strike medals with chronogrammatic sentences, in which the date of the occasion commemorated was set forth by the initial letters of the superscription.

Queen Elizabeth died in the year 1603, and the following chronogram relating to that event has come down to us:—

"My Day Is Closed In Immortality."

The initial letters of this sentence are

M	= 1000;	D	= 500;	I	= 1;	C	= 100;	I	= 1; and	I	= 1; or, MDCIII = 1603.
1		2		3		4		5		6

Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden's great hero, commemorated one of his victories, obtained in the year 1632, by a medal on which was struck the following chronogrammatical inscription:—

h r

s t

ergo

T r

p h

s.[3]

In this chronogram all the letters representing the Roman numerals have been brought into use, which arranged in the order set forth by the figures printed beneath them, read as MDC = 1600; VVVV or 4 × 5 = 20; X = 10; and II or 1 × 2 = 2; or, 1632.

These illustrations afford a fair insight into the construction and design of the Chronogram proper. A few illustrations of this riddle in its more modern form now follow:—

Write one thousand down, quite plain,

Then half of two, then add again

Fifty and one's final letter;

You can then do nothing better

Than, after every evening meal,

Walk the distance I reveal.

Answer: M (1,000), I (half of two), L (fifty), E (onE's final letter)—Mile

"After supper walk a mile."—Old English Proverb.

Puzzle.		Answer.
A famous English warrior duke,		Marlborough.
Whose battles are renowned;
A celebrated admiral,		Drake.
Who first the globe sailed round;
A navigator who was killed		Cook.
By savage treachery;
A noted voyager who first		Cabot.
America did see;
A sailor second in command		Collingwood.
In great Trafalgar's fight;
The vessel in which Nelson fell,		Victory.
In his struggle for the right.

The initials of these six words take,

And place them side by side;

Then they will name, as thus arranged,

The year when Nelson died.

Answer: M = 1,000; D = 500; CCC = 300; V = 5; or, 1805.

To half-a-dozen add six, and to the result add five hundred. The whole will represent a word signifying clear, lucid, bright, or glowing.

Answer: (Half-a-dozen), VI; (six), VI; (five hundred), D; or, VIVID; or, Vivid.

Puzzle.		Answer.
A poet who in blindness wrote		Milton.
His work of greatest fame;
Another who, in Charles's reign,		Dryden.
Did make himself a name;
Then he who's often Father called		Chaucer.
Of our English poetry;
The far West claims this modern bard,		Longfellow.
So rich in symphony;
The scolding wife of Socrates,		Xantippe.
Her name you surely know;
The Prince of Latin poets last,		Virgil.
We call on you to show.

The initials of these names you'll find

In order written down,

Will give the date in which the Plague

Did rage in London town.

Answer: MDCLXV; or, 1665.

If from five you take five, you may leave a word denoting contempt or dislike.

Answer: FIVE; V (or 5) taken away, leaves FIE, or fie!

One thousand two hundred and nothing and one,

Transposed, give a word expressive of fun.

Answer: M (one thousand), CC (two hundred), O (nothing), I (one) =

M	C	COI; or, COMIC.
3	5

A thousand and fifty and one transpose,

'Twill produce a fruit in Spain that grows.

Answer: M (a thousand), L (fifty), and ONE; or,

M	L	O	N	E transposed.
1	3	4	5	2