Your correspondent DX. is mistaken in supposing that "foreigners ordinarily commence the astronomical day at midnight."
With respect to France, in the Explication et Usage des Articles de la Connaissance des Temps it is expressly stated: "Le jour astronomique commence à midi."
And in the explanation appended to the Berlin Jahrbuch, it is in like manner distinctly laid down:
"The time which must be always understood, unless it is otherwise particularly expressed, is the mean time of the meridian of the New Berlin Observatory, which is taken to be 44m 14·0s eastward of Paris, and 53m 35·5s eastward of Greenwich. The beginning of the day is at noon."
The civil day always commences at the midnight preceding this astronomical day.
It follows that Sept. 17, 3h 40m 30s Greenwich mean time, is simply Sept. 17, 4h 34m 5·5s Berlin mean time.
T. C.
Durham.
Ruined Churches (Vol. iv., p. 261.).
—The old church of St. John in the Wilderness, near Exmouth, can hardly be said to be in ruins, in the sense before implied with regard to marriages, &c. It is dilapidated, and almost deserted; but on visiting it a few days since, I found it securely locked, the nave weather tight, and sufficiently furnished for baptisms, marriages, and burials, with surplice, two Prayer Books, Bible, table, font, bier, and bell. They had certainly all seen their best days; but on that account perhaps they are supposed to be more in keeping with the general state of the venerable fabric.