Brelade, Jersey, brings to my mind a
circumstance that once occurred to myself, which may, perhaps, be
amusing to date-hunters. Some years ago I visited a farm-house
in the north of England, whose owner had a taste for collecting
curiosities of all sorts. Not the least valuable of his collection
was a splendidly carved oak bedstead, which he considered of great
antiquity. Its date, plainly marked upon the panels at the bottom
of the front posts, was, he told me, 1111. On {359} examining this
astounding date a little closely, I soon perceived that the two middle
strokes had a slight curvature, a tendency to approach the shape of an
S, which distinguished them from the two exterior lines. The date was,
in fact, 1551; yet so small was the difference of the figures, that
the mistake was really a pardonable one.
Is your correspondent "E.V." acquainted with the _History of Castle
Acre Priory_, published some years ago? If my memory fails me not,
there is a date given in that work, as found inscribed on the plaster
of the Priory wall, much more ancient than 1445.
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