Abundance of instances might be adduced of the use of the term _bizocco_ in the sense of hypocrite, or would-be saint. And the passage which Mr. Trench gives after Richardson from Bishop Hall, where _bigot_ is used to signify a pervert to Romanism, "he was turned both _bigot_ and physician," seems to me to favour my etymology rather than that from the Spanish; as showing that the earliest known use of the term was its application to a Popish religionist. The "pervert" alluded to had become that which cotemporary Italians were calling a _bigiotto_. Must we not conclude that Bishop Hall drew his newly-coined word thence?
When I published this work, I knew of no predecessor except Francoeur, as noted in the preface; but another has been recently pointed out to me. There was a work compiled for the use of the Dominicans, entitled _Kalendarium Perpetuum juxta ritum Sacri ordinis prædicatorum, s. p. n. Dominici_. The copy now before me, Rome, 1612, 8vo., is said to be "tertio emendatum," which probably signifies the fourth edition. It contains the thirty-five almanacs, with rules for determining epacts and dominical letters from A.D. 1600 to 2100, and a table for choosing the almanac when the epact and letter are known.
This work must have been compiled before the reformation of the calendar. A note in explanation of the thirty-fifth almanac, contains the statement that A.D. 1736 belongs to that calendar, and to the letters D.C. This is true of the old style, and not of the new.
It seems, then, that _Books of Almanacs_ are older than the Gregorian reformation: that they may have been completely forgotten, may be inferred from my book never having produced any mention of them either in your pages or elsewhere. Perhaps some older instances may be yet produced.
_Distances at which Sounds have been heard._--The story of St. Paul's clock striking being heard by a sentry at Windsor is well known, and I believe authentic. Let me add the following:--The Rev. Hugh Salvin (who died vicar of Alston, Cumberland, Sept. 28, 1852) mentions an equally remarkable instance whilst he was chaplain on board H.M.S. "Cambridge," on the coast of South America:
"Our salutes at Chancay were heard at Callao, though the distance is thirty-five miles, and several projecting headlands intervene, and the wind always blows northward. The lieutenant of the Arab store-ship, to whom the circumstance was mentioned, observed, that upon one occasion the evening gun at Plymouth was heard at Ilfracomb, which is sixty miles off, and a mountainous country intervenes."--_Journal of the Rev. H. S. Salvin_, p. 64., 12mo.: Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1829.