COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR.
(Vol. vi., p. 563.)
It may be of service to the inquirer as to the commencement of the year, to call his attention to the note appended to the "Table of moveable Feasts" in editions prior to 1752. As given by Keeling, from the editions antecedent and subsequent to the last review, in 1662, they are as follows:
"Note.—That the supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church of England beginneth the xxvth day of March, the same day supposed to be the first day upon which the world was created, and the day when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary" [1604].
"Note.—That the supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church of England beginneth the xxvth day of March" [1662].
Of course, after the act for alteration of the style (24 Geo. II. c. 23.) was passed, this note was omitted. But up to that date the old supputation was authoritative and legal. Reference to Hampson's Medii Ævi Kalendarium might further illustrate the point.
To this Note allow me to append a Query. After the collect for St. Stephen's Day follows this rubric:
"Then shall follow the collect of the Nativity, which shall be said continually until New Year's Eve."
Query, Was this collect to be repeated from December 25 to March 24? for, according to the above supputation, that would be New Year's Eve.
The following note, from the preface to Granger's Biographical History, may not be out of place:
"The following absurdities, among many others, were occasioned by these different computations. In 1667 there were two Easters, the first on the 25th of April, and the second on the 22nd of March following; and there were three different denominations of the Year of our Lord affixed to three state papers which were published in one week, viz. his Majesty's Speech, dated 1732-3; the Address of the House of Lords, 1732; the Address of the House of Commons, 1733."—Page xxiii., edit. 1824.
Balliolensis.