Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

ABBEY CHURCHES (8th S. iii. 188, 257, 349).— Absence from home having prevented my revising the proof of my communication on Abbey Churches,' I shall feel much obliged if I may be allowed to supply the following corrections. Abbey Dore, in Herefordshire, only retains the choir and transepts, and should be transferred from Class I. to Class III. Monkton by Pembroke, having had the dismantled chancel restored, should be transferred from Class II. to Class I. Margam, where the nave remains and is used as the parish church, should be added to Class II. As clerical errors, for tower end," towards the close of the second paragraph, read tower arch," and in the last paragraph, sixth line from the beginning, for "original portion" read "original founder."

[ocr errors]

EDMUND VENABLES.

DUEL (8th S. iii. 347).-There is a full notice of this by Pepys, at the year, vol. iv. pp. 325-7, 1848. ED. MARSHALL.

ALICE FITZ ALAN (8th S. ii. 248, 314, 457, 496; iii. 74, 316).-That there were two Alice Fitz Alans there cannot be the least doubt, except that the real name of the elder was not Alice (Latin Alicia), but Ales or Aleyse (Latin, Alesia). If the younger Alice were ever contracted to Cardinal Beaufort, it must have been almost in infancy. The earliest date for his birth is 1376, and 1378 or 1380 is more probable. Alice may have been a little older, but the probability is that she was born after 1372. But from 1385 (if not earlier) to 1388 (when the marriage was broken off) she was affianced to Roger, Earl of March, and in 1392 she was the wife of Lord Charleton, while Cardinal Beaufort was a prebendary in 1390.

HERMENTRUDE.

THE HOLY THORN (8th S. iii. 125, 177, 255).-The frequent references to Glastonbury in 'N. & Q.' have reminded me of the following lines, which some years ago I found written in the visitors' book of the "George Hotel," Glastonbury, by the Rev. J. Jackson, Vicar of Lew, Oxon. They are sufficiently curious to claim preservation in "N. & Q.' :

Before the "Blessed Reformation,"

One Faith, one Church sufficed the nation,
But since was raised that de'il's tattoo,
Two hundred sects have proved too few.
Eternal splitting seems to be
The substitute for Unity.

We brooked not one Pope's interference,
And to a Legion gave adherence.

Pope Self-the phrase, “It seems to me,"
Our all-pervading Popery.
And in this town of Glastonbury

(A sight to make the devils merry)

[blocks in formation]

There is, or was thirty years ago, a so-called holy thorn at a village in Dorset called Chideocke; and MRS. BOGER may be interested to hear that an old inhabitant of the village, in which I then lived, assured me of its blossoming on Old Christmas Day, and used the (supposed) fact precisely as her informant did, as an argument against the New Style. I have seen the thorn, but never on Christmas Day, New or Old. I was assured on the spot that it blossomed on Christmas Day, whether Old or New I forgot to inquire.

C. B. MOUNT.

"THE WHITE CHRIST" (8th S. iii. 307).-A writer in the Literary World of April 21 says that the expression "the White Christ "1 was conversion to Christianity. It was first used in current among the Norsemen at the time of their poetry by the Icelandic poet Sigvatr Thordarson about 1030, but it was a common phrase long before that time. JOHN CHURCHILL SIKES. 13, Wolverton Gardens, Hammersmith.

POST OFFICE GRAMMAR (8th S. iii. 248).-I doubt whether the post-card inscription would bear the construction that A. W. B. puts on it; but it has already been pointed out that it makes it illegal to write the address on the face of the card. To most people A. W. B.'s emendation would mean that the local habitation of the addressee might be named, but not his personal name. Possibly the foreign wording, "This side is reserved for the address," is as good as can be got.

Q. V.

chronology seems to run thus: Lord Leicester's QUEEN'S PLAYERS (8th S. iii. 208). The Company had licence by patent, May 7, 1574, to act within the City; it subsequently became Queen's Players, better known as Shakspere's and Burbage's Company. It subsequently became Lord Chamberlain's; it was also called Lord Hunsdon's, and became "the King's" under James I. Its members acted at the Globe in summer, at Blackfriars in winter; and, previously to 1596, at Newington Butts. Lord Hunsdon, above named, died 1596, and a disruption ensued, led by W. Kemp. It arose from some proceedings of Lord Cobham, who became Chamberlain for a few months; he was unpopular, and the date coincides with the substitution of Falstaff for Oldcastle, both being "Sir John." A. HALL.

GOSTLING FAMILY (8th S. iii. 208).-I cannot give all the information MR. JACOB requires; but, as I am now engaged in the copying of all the memorial inscriptions in our cathedral, I can supply a part. The "oval tablet" fell from the wall of the west cloister some years ago, and was broken to pieces. So far I have been unable to discover what became of the fragments.

The following memorials to members of the Gostling family still remain in the floor of the same cloister :

"J. Gostling, 1733," father of William G., the

author.

"H. Gostling, 1760," Hester G., wife of William above named.

"W. Gostling, 1777," William G., author of the 'Walk.'

"H. G., 1798," Mrs. Hester G. (?), daughter of William G., born 1719.

"J. G., 1804," Rev. John G., son of William, born 1725.

"W. G., 1804," William G., captain of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

M. G., 1806," Mary G., widow of Capt. William G.

William G., the author, was born in 1695 (not 1705, as stated in 'A Manual of Kentish Biography), and was married to Hester Thomas in 1717. Capt. William G., described as a lieutenant in 1758, married, first, Mary His second wife, whom he married in 1768, was Mary Gurney, spinster, of Sholden, co. Kent.

The memorials dated 1733, 1760, 1777, are on small stones, each about the size of a common brick. Some Le Grands were buried close by the Gostlings.

Canterbury.

[ocr errors]

J. M. CowPER.

For a good deal of gossip about Capt. William Gostling and his brother the Rev. John Gostling, sons of the author of the Walk,' see Miss L. M. Hawkins's 'Anecdotes,' &c. (1824), vol. ii. The 'Walk' occurs not infrequently in catalogues of second-hand books.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. The Brassey Institute, Hastings.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

By

The Bride of Lammermoor and The Black Dwarf.
Sir Walter Scott. Edited by A. Lang. (Nimmo.)
A Legend of Montrose. (Same author, editor, and pub-
lisber.)

THE "Border Edition" of the "Waverley Novels" has received an important accession of three volumes containing some of Scott's most valuable and characteristic work. It has been, and may still be, maintained that The Bride of Lammermoor' is Scott's highest and most imaginative book. It is, in fact, a Northern Romeo and Juliet,' sterner and grimmer than the Southern legend, but neither less poetical nor less fateful. In his

editorial preface, Mr. Lang draws attention to the admirable use made by Scott of the magical, or quasimagical insight attributed to his witches. This is, of course, no less apparent in 'A Legend of Montrose,' in which Allan's second sight and his morose disposition exercise a complete thraldom over the reader. Upon Caleb Balderstone Mr. Lang is very severe. There is no doubt that we have too much of him, and that his devices begin to pall. Many of Scott's early critics now quoted found the old servant tiresome. One or two, indeed, have found the same fault with Dugald Dalgetty, against which Mr. Lang loyally protests. We are, indeed, inclined to put Dalgetty foremost of Scott's comic characters. He talks too much; and his confabulation with his Highland guide, when he is escaping from the Earl of Argyll, is too much for faith. Still, the character, as a whole, is delightful, and the adventure in the dungeon is very spirited. One understands that the descendants of Argyll looked askance upon Scott for his unflattering portrait of their ancestor. Particulars of gossipping style. The three volumes maintain in all respects the supremacy of the edition over all other. Among the designs is one of extreme loveliness, by Sir John Millais, presenting the courtship of Edgar and Lucy. Mr. Macbeth-Raeburn supplies most of the etchings, including both of those to The Black Dwarf.' A more tasteful and sumptuous edition is not to be desired, and the successive volumes are a delight to look on, to handle,

this kind Mr. Lang supplies in his own delightfully

and to read.

[ocr errors]

The Oxford Bible for Teachers. (Oxford, Clarendon IN the effort to bring to perfection this, the handiest, Press.) most useful, and, in a sense, handsomest of Holy Bibles, generations, it may almost be said, of the highest class of workers have been consumed. To give the baldest possible summary of its contents would be to occupy a space we have never yet been able to assign to a single volume. The work practically began in the last century, when to an edition of the Oxford Bible were appended an index and tables of Scripture weights, measures, coins, &c., compiled by Dr. Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough. Between 1870 and 1876, however, under the direction of Canon Ridgway, assisted by many authorities, some of whose names are still, happily, familiar in N. & Q.,' Oxford Helps to the Study of the Bible' was compiled and issued. Since its first appearance it has undergone constant revision, and it now, under the care of authorities no less eminent, appears in a new, enlarged, and illustrated form. The best scholarship in England has been devoted to its perfection, and it may now claim to be the handsomest, most comprehensive, and most trustworthy volume ever issued. It claims to be "an invaluable companion for every preacher and minister of religion, every teacher, and every private student." The claim must be allowed-cannot, indeed, be resisted. The Bible itself occupies a thousand pages in double columns, the helps some five hundred more. So thin is the paper, meanwhile, that the book can be put in the pocket or carried in the hand with complete ease, its weight, in its flexible morocco binding, being a mere trifle. Very lovely is the printing, moreover, and the gilding of the edges over carmine. Simply as a book it is an édition de luxe. Among the most salient features in the text are a concordance, a glossary of antiquities, a dictionary of proper names and subjects, sixty-four full-page plates (reproducing exactly documents, monuments, contemporary portraits, &c., illustrating the history of the Old and New Testaments), and a new indexed and admirably executed atlas. To mention the men who are responsible for these things is to supply a nomenclature of the men

most eminent in their respective departments. To
review a work of this importance is out of the question,
a specialist being needed for every subject. Our own
effort is confined to introducing to our readers a work
which is, in fact, a library, and a library, moreover, of
productions up to date and of inoppugnable authority,
In one hand easily a man holds an epitome of all Biblical
knowledge. Only within a few years has such a thing
been possible. It is to add to the value of this fine
volume to say that it is a work of real and remarkable
beauty.

Deutsche Volkslieder: a Selection of German Folk-Songs.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Horatio
Stevens White, Professor of German Language and
Literature, Cornell University. (Putnam's Sons.)
THERE are thirty-seven volumes already issued in the
series of "Knickerbocker Nuggets," to which this
elegant little volume belongs. They must form a charm-
ing library of pocket companions if the rest are at all
like Prof. White's interesting contribution. Here we
are brought face to face alike with Frau Nachtigall
and with Old Hildebrand, the Knight, with the Piper
of Hamelin and with Lohengrin, with fair May and
with the Three Knights riding by, and with songs of
spring, and of that love to which hearts then so lightly
In his introduction Prof. White
turn, we are told.
states the difficulty of defining what is a folk-song, and
then gets over it by the help of Mr. Andrew Lang. On
the whole, the readers of this volume will probably be
better pleased with the glowing words which Prof.
White quotes from Mr. Lang than they would have been
with any Procrustean bed of a definition on which he
might have stretched them. Readers of folk-songs
are more likely to be carried away by the martial
ardour of the bold Grenadier or by the soothing tones of
the lover than to be satisfied by a correct definition.
They may, indeed, be tempted to agree with Heine's
countess, and say of folk-songs, as the countess said of

love: "Die Liebe ist eine Passion!"

Memories of Malling and its Valley. With a Fauna and Flora of Kent. By Rev. C. H. Fielding. (West Malling, Oliver; London, Marlborough.)

WE welcome this volume, dealing with a group of Kentish villages, very gladly. It has at the end a useful map of the valley, showing what places are treated of. It is not, and we are quite sure Mr. Fielding has not intended it to be, a distinctively antiquarian book. He has told the more noteworthy facts relating to the district which interests him in a happy and fluent style, leaving it to others who have more leisure or higher qualifications to give the world an exhaustive treatise on the nest of villages concerning the antiquities of which he discourses in so entertaining a manner. The earlier times have several chapters given to them, but we find therein little that is new. When, how ever, we arrive at the sixteenth century and parish registers have begun, there is very much to interest every intelligent person. We are very glad to welcome these long series of extracts, as they will cause a local interest in the documents, and give us reason to hope that all of them may be printed without curtailment.

Our Roman Catholic readers may be interested in knowing that at West or Town Malling there was buried on June 28, 1824, "Jacques François Stuart de Lenneville, French Priest, formerly of Notre Dame de bon report......rector of Champigny near Melun." This was no doubt one of the émigré priests who found shelter here from the storm of the French Revolution. Many, perhaps most, of these exiles returned to their own land when the monarchy of the Bourbons was restored, but some few remained to die in their adopted country.

Mr. Fielding gives a list of Kentish proverbs which will be of interest to many. He also tells us that there is at Offham Green a quintain still standing. There is a notion that the lord of the manor is bound to keep it in order, but some say that this duty devolves on the owners of a neighbouring house. We trust that, however this be, so interesting a relic of the past times of our forefathers will not be permitted to fall into decay. A Little Book about Cartmel. By the Rev. William Ffolliott. (Stock.) CARTMEL is a most interesting place, with a grand old church. There are several books about it, but not one which satisfies modern requirements. Mr. Ffolliott's tract of some thirty small pages will do good in stimulating interest, and paving the way to something on a larger scale. The account he has given of the Rev. Thomas Remington is instructive. We are too apt to think that the parochial clergy in the days of our grandfathers were a set of drones. That much laxity and idleness prevailed we all know, but the picture is often too highly coloured. The author has extracted from the parish registers a list of those who have died from drowning. The catalogue begins in 1576 and ends in 1846. The number of entries nearly reaches a hundred. Among them are Goodsent, Boulcock, Muckalt, Florido, Curatto, and other uncommon names.

To the May number of the Journal of the Ex-Libris Society Ulster King of Arms contributes Part III, of Book-Pile Ex-Libris.' Mr. Walter Hamilton answers with zeal and eloquence a writer on the daily press who had sneered at his favourite pursuits. The society, which receives constant and important additions, is in a flourishing condition.

MR. ELLIOT STOCK announces a new work on 'Scrivelsby, the Home of the Champions,' by Samuel Lodge. It will give much new information about the Marmion and Dymoke families, and will contain many illustrations.

MR. R. C. HOPE, F.S.A., promises, through Mr. Elliot Stock, a work that should be of interest to our readers, on The Holy Wells of England.'

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate."

Contributors will oblige by addressing proofs to Mr. Slate, Athenæum Press, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.

F. E. WARREN ("St. Grasinus").-Your suggestion has been anticipated. See ante, p. 232.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to " The Editor of Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return com. munications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.

THE ATHENÆUM

JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE,
THE FINE ARTS, MUSIC, AND

[blocks in formation]

The ATHENEUM, every SATURDAY, price THREEPENCE, of
JOHN C. FRANCIS, Athenæum Office, Bream's-buildings, Chancery-lane, E.C.
Or of all Newsagents.

[blocks in formation]

LONDON: 12, ST. BRIDE STREET, LUDGATE-CIRCUS, E.C
Sold at all Railway Bookstalls, Booksellers', and Newsvendors'.

Priited by JOHN C. FRANCIS. Athenæum Press, Bream's-buildings, Chancery-lane, E.C.; and Published by the said
JOHN C. FRANCIS, at Bream's-buildings, Chancery-lane, E.C.-Saturday, May 13, 1893.

« EelmineJätka »