Chronogram.
Such was the name given to a whimsical device of the later Romans, resuscitated during the renaissance period, by which a date is given by selecting certain letters amongst those which form an inscription, and printing them larger than the others. The principle will be understood from the following chronogram made from the name of George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham—
Georg IVs. DVX. bVCkIngaMIæ.
The date MDCXVVVIII (1628), is that of the year in which the Duke was murdered by Felton, at Portsmouth.
Instance of Remarkable Perseverance.
The Rev. Wm. Davy, a Devonshire curate, in the year 1795, begun a most desperate undertaking, viz: that of himself printing twenty-six volumes of sermons, which he actually did, working off page by page, for fourteen copies, and continued the almost hopeless task for twelve years, in the midst of poverty. Such wonderful perseverance almost amounts to a ruling passion.
Alliterative Whims.
Mrs. Crawford says she wrote one line in her song, "Kathleen Mavourneen," for the express purpose of confounding the cockney warblers, who sing it thus—
"The 'orn of the 'unter is 'eard on the 'ill."
Moore has laid the same trap in the Woodpecker—