It must have appeared in an English ministerial paper about the year 1805.—From the Navorscher.
Dionysios.
The Number Nine.—Can any of your mathematical correspondents inform me of the law and reason of the following singular property of the numbers? If from any number above nine the same number be subtracted written backwards, the addition of the figures of the remainder will always be a multiple of nine; for instance—
| 972619 | |
| 916279 | |
| 56340 | the sum of which is 18, or 9 × 2. |
| 925012 | |
| 210529 | |
| 714483 | the sum of which is 27, or 9 × 3. |
| 83 | |
| 38 | |
| 45 | the sum of which is 9. |
John Lammens.
Position of Font.—The usual and very significant position of the font is near the church door. But there is one objection to this, viz. that the benches being best arranged facing the chancel, the people cannot without much confusion see the baptisms. This being so, perhaps a better place for the font is at the entrance of the chancel. The holy rite, so edifying to the congregation, as well as profitable to the recipient, can then be duly seen; and the position is tolerably symbolical, expressing as it were "the way that is opened for us into the holiest of all." I am curious to know if there are any ancient examples of this position, and how far the canon sanctions it, which directs that the font be set up in "the ancient usual places" [plural]? While on the subject let me put another Query. The Rubric directs that the font be "then," i. e. just before the baptism, filled with pure water. In what vessel is the water brought, and who fills the font? What are the precedents in this matter? Rules, I think, there are none.
A. A. D.
Aix Ruochim or Romans Ioner.—On the verge of the cliff at Kingsgate, near the North Foreland, is a small castle or fort of chalk and flint, known by the above name. Can any of your readers give any information regarding the date of the erection of this curious edifice? Some of the local guidebooks attribute it to the time of Vortigern, or about 448; but this seems an almost fabulous antiquity.
A. O. H.
Blackheath.