Incised Slab.—I have a large incised slab in my church, with the figures of a man (Richard Grenewey) and his wife upon it, with the date 1473. Following the date, and filling up the remainder of the line of the inscription, is the figure of a cock in a fighting attitude. Can any of your readers enlighten me on the subject?
H. C. K.
Etymology of Balsall.—Will you allow me to ask some of your readers to give me the etymology of Balsall? It occurs frequently about here, as Balsall Temple, B. Street, B. Grange, B. Common, and near Birmingham is Balsall Heath. It is not to be confounded with Beausall Common, which also is near this place.
F. R.
Kenilworth.
St. Olave's Churches.—In the Calendar of the Anglican Church, Parker, Oxford, 1851, at pp. 267. and 313., it is stated that Saint Olave helped King Ethelred to dislodge the Danes from London and Southwark, by destroying London Bridge; and that, in gratitude for this service, the churches at each end of the bridge are dedicated to him;—on the Southwark side, St. Olave's, Tooley Street, is; but was there ever a church on the London side, bearing the same name?—The nearest one to the bridge is St. Olave's, Hart Street; but that is surely too distant to be called "at the end of the bridge."
E. N. W.
Southwark, April 21. 1851.
Sabbatical and Jubilee Years of the Jews.—As the solution of many interesting topics in connexion with Jewish history is yet dependent on the period of the institution of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, the following observations will not perhaps be deemed unworthy of a "nook" in your columns. A spark may blaze! I therefore throw it out to be fanned into a more brilliant light by those of your readers whose studies peculiarly fit them to inquire more searchingly into the subject. The Jews, it has been remarked by various writers, were ignorant of astronomy. Both, however, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years have been, as I conceive and will endeavour to show, founded on astronomical observation, commemorative of no particular event in Jewish history, but simply that of the moon's revolutions; for instance, with reference to the Sabbatical year, allowing for a difference of four days and a half, which occurs annually in the time of the moon's position on the equator, it would require, in order to realise a number corresponding to the days (29) employed by the moon in her synodical revolution round the earth, a period to elapse of little less than six years and a half: thus exhibiting the Jews' seventh or Sabbatical year, or year of rest. This result, besides being instructive and commemorative of the moon's menstrual course, is at the same time indicative, as each Sabbatical year rolls past, of the approach of the "finisher of the Seven Sabbaths of years," or year of Jubilee, so designated from its being to the chosen people of God, under the Jewish dispensation, a year of "freedom and redemption," in commemoration of the moon's complete revolution, viz., her return to a certain position at the precise time at which she set out therefrom, an event which takes place but once in fifty years: in other words, if the moon be on the equator, say, on the first day of February, and calculating twenty-nine days to the month, or twelve lunations to the year, a cycle of fifty years, or "seven Sabbaths of years," must elapse ere she will again be in that position on the same day.
Hipparchus.