Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/171

 10* s. i. FEB. is, loo*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

139

As the work is liberally illustrated, it forms an interesting souvenir of spots which all living Londoners recall, and an indispensable portion of every library dealing largely with what are called Londiniana. Concerned as it is with legislation regarding the new streets to he erected, with conditions of competition, and with the compensa- tion to be accorded to the owners of property, such as the Gaiety Theatre and the Morning Post, the early part, though important, is of limited interest. Much of the text is made up of reports of pro- ceedings of the County Council and of the in- effectual attempt to induce that body to recon- sider a portion of its scheme.

Not until the fifth chapter is reached do we come upon the philological and historical portion of the work, upon the reasons for the selection of the name Aldwych and the description of Danish and Norwegian influence in London, and especially of the Danish settlement around St. Clement's Church. What COL. PRIDEAUX says in ' N. & Q.,' 9 th S. ii. 81, concerning- the village of J^ldwic or Aldwic, known later as Aldewych, and of Via de Aldewych, connecting it with the Hospital of St. Giles, is quoted. We hear much of the practice of nailing the skins of Danes upon the doors of churches. The maypoles of later times, around which Nell Gwyn may have danced, are depicted ; and there is an account of the procession of the "Scald Miserable Masons" on 27 August, 1742, or, preferably, on 7 April of the same year. Very many antiquarian subjects are discussed in a gossiping fashion. Fiction is also employed, and a curious proof of the influence of Dickens is furnished in the inser- tion of long descriptive passages from his pen.

On Saying Giace. By H. L. Dixon, M.A. (Parker

&Co.)

MR. DIXON has put together a very complete and scholarly little treatise on the origin and growth of the pious custom in which acknowledgment is made of a Higher Power who provides man with his daily sustenance, and to whom, consequently, a meed of gratitude is due. In a catena of passages from classical writers and theFathers of the Church he traces the historical development of the institu- tion from remote antiquity, quoting a remark of Athenfeus that "none but Epicureans began their meals without some act of religion." Even that backward people the Ainfis, according to Mr. Batchelor (whose name, by the way, is misspelt by Mr. Dixon), have a rude form of grace, in which they thank the Divine Nourisher for the food of which they are about to partake. The formulae of a large number of college graces are given, which a little more trouble on the part of the author would have made complete. We miss, for example, the ancient form in use at Trinity College, Dublin, which bears a general resemblance to that used at Clare College, Cambridge. There seems to be a letter redundant in the phrase "libare paternam Jovi " as cited by Mr. Dixon (p. 75).

The, Story of the Token. By Robert Shiells,

F.S.A.Scot. (Oliphant & Co.) IT must every day become more difficult to find a subject for a book which is not already trite and hackneyed. The time is coming when the specialist in entomology, e.^.,will have to devote his com- prehensive monograph, not to the beetle, but to the leg or other member of that vast subject. Mr. Shiells has discovered for himself a minute depart-

ment of ecclesiastical antiquities which was still waiting for its historian. For the token to which Mr. Shiells has devoted his reseaches is not the private coinage of small denomination with which the enterprising tradesman formerly used to adver- tise his firm, but the little leaden tablet or medal which Scottish ministers used to issue to their parishioners as a passport authorizing their admis- sion to the Holy Table. This old-time observance, once distinctive of the Presbyterian Sabbath, is now rapidly becoming extinct, and it has been the author's laudable ambition to make a collection of these symbola or Communion vouchers, and then, as a natural sequence, to write their " story." Sooth to say, these leaden dumps have little to recommend them as works of art. They are rude and inartistic, and South Kensington would not be the poorer if none of them survived. The prevail- ing design consists merely of a date and the initials of the minister. They have not even the charm of antiquity to recommend them, as they date chiefly from the eighteenth century, and the very earliest only go back to the first quarter of the seventeenth. There is mention, however, of their being struck at St. Andrews in 1590, and the Huguenots made use of these Communion checks in 1559. Mr. Shiells conjectures that they may have come down by Catholic tradition from the tesserae of the Romans, something similar being used for admission of the faithful to the Agap6. But the difficulty remains that no trace of such material symbols can be found during the fifteen intervening centuries. It must be added that the writer pads out his small book by much digressive and irrelevant matter. He is quite mistaken in his derivation of Fr. mereau from Lat. mereri, as if it denoted a token given to the deserving ! There is a careless misprint of Xpto-Tov on p. 144.

Ships and Shipping. Edited by Francis Miltouu.

(Moring.)

WE have here, with coloured illustrations of flags, signals, &c., and with abundant other illustrations, a useful and pretty little volume, supplying lands- men with all the information they are likely to require concerning ships and shipping at home and abroad. This is, in phrase now classic, "ex- tensive and peculiar." Much of it is derived from Lloyds.

THE Congregational Historical Society has sent us its Transactions for January ; also a hitherto lost treatise by Robert Browne, " the father of Congregationalism," ' A New Years Guift,' " in the form of a letter to his uncle Mr. Flower." To this Mr. Champlin Burrage has written an introduction, in which he states that in 1874 the manuscript was acquired by the British Museum. Mr. Crippen considers it to be the most important contribution to early Nonconformist history that has come to light since Dr. Dexter's recovery (about 1875) of the 'True and Short Declaration.' The contents of the Transactions show some good work done. There is a sketch of Congregationalism in Hamp- shire by George Browuen, with a map showing the places where ministers were ejected 1660-2. Mr. Edward Windeatt contributes 'Devonshire and the Indulgence of 1672.' Mr. W. H. Summers gives extracts from the diary of Dr. Thomas Gibbons, 1749 to 1785. This contains references to the Cromwell family, Whitefield, and the Abneys. On Thursday, the 8th of February, 1750, Gibbons