Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 94, August 16, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 94, August 16, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
In 1790 I recollect an old man of a hundred and twenty, who appeared
before the French National Assembly, and gave clear answers to questions
on events which he had witnessed one hundred and ten years before.
Similar lengths of personal remembrance are related of old Parr, Lady
Desmond, and others, whose ages exceeded one hundred and forty years.
The daughter-in-law of the French king, Charles IX. (widow of his
natural son, the Duke of Angoulême), survived that monarch by a hundred
and thirty-nine years (1574-1713),--a rare, if not an unexampled fact.
The famous Cardan, in his singular work, _De Vita Propriâ_, states that
his grandfather's birth anteceded his own by a hundred and fifty years
(1351-1501). Franklin relates that his grandfather was born in the
sixteenth century, and reign of Elizabeth, as Sir Stephen Fox, the
grandfather of our contemporary statesman, Charles, was born shortly
after the death of James I., in 1627. A very near connexion of my own,
though much younger, is the grandson of a gentleman whose birth
retrocedes to Charles II., in 1672. Niebuhr grounds one of his
objections to the truth of the early Roman history on the very great
improbability of the long period of two hundred and forty-five years
assigned to the collective reigns of the seven kings. It does, indeed,
exceed the average of enthroned life; but the seven monarchs of Spain,
from Ferdinand (the Catholic) to the French Bourbon, Philip V.,
inclusively, embraced a period of two hundred and sixty-seven years in
their successive rule (1469, when Ferdinand obtained the crown of
Arragon, and 1746, the date of Philip's death). The eminent German
historian offers, however, much stronger arguments in disbelief of the
Roman annals; but he had many predecessors in his views, though himself,
unquestionably, the most powerful writer on the subject.
J. R. (An Octogenarian.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account