ABSTRACT
In late September 1985, during the height of Hurricane Gloria, the purchaser of a New England house built in 1790 went up to the rafters to check for leaks in the roof. Shining his flashlight above his head, he discovered a “large Roman numeral six” carved near the end of one of the rafters. Nearby rafters were similarly marked with Roman numerals not by Romans, of course,” he assures us, “but by people from long ago.”1
