Though long ascribed to Regiomontanus, whose death preceded its first appearance, and therefore made its application to posterior events appear prophetic, the real author, according to the astronomer Delambre, was a German named Bruschius, of the sixteenth century, who pretended to have discovered it on a tomb (we may suppose that of Regiomontanus) in Bohemia, that learned man's country. Many other similar prophecies have deluded the world, of which the most celebrated were those of the Englishman Merlin. An early edition, printed in 1528, fetched sixteen guineas in 1812 at the Roxburgh sale, though preceded by three or four. It is in French, and at Gaignat's sale, in 1769, brought only thirty-one livres. It was No. 2239. of the Catalogue.
J. R.
Cork, Sept. 17.
BOROUGH-ENGLISH.
(Vol. iv., p. 133.)
Since my former communication I have collected the following list of places where this custom prevails:—
In Surrey:
Battersea.—Lysons' Environs, vol. i. p. 30.
Wimbledon (Archbishop of Canterbury's Manor).—Lysons' Environs, vol. i. p. 523.
Streatham (Manor of Leigham Court).—Lysons' Environs, vol. i. p. 481.
Richmond, Ham, Peterham.—Lysons' Environs.