pursuant to the last query: Stukeley has a strange reference to "In Feb. 1727-28" in a letter published in Vol. 35 of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" - I wasn't sure if this represented vagueness on his part about the date "they" did some plowing, or (the idea I just had) that maybe the year began sometime in the middle of February back in the 1720s...?
then i realised that Vol. 35 is dated "1727-1728," but published sometime after (i assume), so...
curioser & curioser...
anyone have any clever explanations?