Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/27

 10 th S. I. JAN. 2, 190*.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

case, to cover the reign of the Tudors, with the close of the Wars of the Roses, the suppression of the monasteries, the Pilgrimage of Grace, the alter- nate persecutions of Lutherans and Catholics, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the intellectual and social upheaval under the reign of Elizabeth, we shall be content and thankful. Of this we hear nothing, however, at present, our immediate duty not extending beyond a welcome to the volume before us. Sufficiently varied and stimulating is the period dealt with to satisfy the most exorbitant appetite. Beginning with the Gunpowder Plot, the record includes the deaths, among others, of Walter Raleigh, Buckingham, Strafford, Laud, Monmouth, Lord Russell, and Algernon Sidney ; the growth of difficulties between Charles I. and the civic authorities ; the defeat, trial, and death of the king ; the Commonwealth ; the Pro- tectorate, with all its attendant troubles ; the Restoration ; the great visitation of the plague ; the Fire of London ; the Titus Gates plot ; the persecutions of Jeffreys ; the trial of the bishops ; the flight of James II. ; and the accession of William and Mary, ending with the rule, out- wardly placid, of Queen Anne. Here alone, without descending to events of secondary importance, is "ample space and verge enough." It would ob- viously be impossible, but for the limitations Sir Walter had imposed on his scheme, to comprehend within a single volume any summary, even the most condensed, of all the matters opened out by these things. The limitations in question include, however, the enforced avoidance of all historical treatment and the omission of all literary record. iSuch mention, accordingly, as is made of _Milton is in connexion with religion, and not with literature, while names such as Donne, Cowley, Cleveland, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar are not to be found in the index. Differing in some respects from those in the volume on the eighteenth century, the divisions in the present book begin with the Stuart sovereigns, of each of whom with, in the majority of instances, their consorts, mistresses, descendants, favourites, or counsellors portraits are supplied. A second division includes religion, government, &c., and a third, manners and customs. Between the second and third divisions is intercalated an account of the great Plague and Fire, which is likely to prove the most generally interesting portion of the volume ; and at the close comes a series of valuable appen- dixes. In what is virtually the seventeenth cen- tury Sir Walter finds the City of London at the height of its political importance, and he advances the opinion that not even "when London deposed Richard II. and set up Henry IV. was the City so closely involved in all the events of the time as in the seventeenth century." It is also obvious that between the beginning of the century and its close is a vast breach, in which are included the Civil War, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the Fire, and the final rejection of James II. and abso- lute rule, which events cover half the entire period. It is to a great extent true that the first half of the century is a continuation of the sixteenth, while, in a sense, the second half is a preparation for the eighteenth. These things only bear out what we have affirmed in connexion with the volume pre- viously issued, that divisions such as are ordinarily used are purely arbitrary. In favour of the seven- teenth century Sir Walter claims that it secured the country for two hundred years and for an indefinite period beyond, so far as can be pro-

phesied from the personal interference of the- sovereign.

It is not in connexion with the greatest political events that the volume is most edifying. These are dealt with at full length in the histories to which one ordinarily has recourse. Sir Walter is a pleasant companion, however, when he is moved to indigna- tion over the judicial murder of Alderman Henry Cornish or the burning alive of Elizabeth Gaunt, which, if performed centuries earlier, might have brought additional infamy on the executioners of Joan of Arc. A curious satirical print from the British Museum, given p. 115, illustrates the arrest of Jeffreys. Among the subjects discussed is witch- craft, which appears, naturally, under the head 'Superstition.' In the same chapter may be found many strange instances of credulity, some of which our author is disposed to regard as imposture. 'Sanctuaries' should be read in connexion with ' The Squire of Alsatia ' and ' The Fortunes of Nigel.' In the chapters on ' The Plague' and ' The Fire of London ' we naturally come upon traces of Pcpys, Evelyn, and Defoe. In the case of the former a strange and little -known tract, entitled 'The Wonderful Yeare 1603,' is cited. A picture by Mr. F. W. W. Topham, showing 'A Rescue from the Plague,' is reproduced by the author's per- mission. As a rule it is to the less-known autho- rities and treatises that Sir Walter turns, and much of what he says will be new to the vast majority of readers. Once more the illustrations 1 add greatly to the value of the work and to the delight of the reader. These are often from the Grace and the Gardner collections, and from the British Museum generally. Among the portraits re- produced is one of James I., after Paul van Somcr,. showing a wonderfully sensual and repulsive face, bearing out, apparently, the scandalous suggestion of Raleigh, which is said to have cost that great man dear. As in the previous volume, the matter is of varied interest and value, and the book may be read with unending edification and delight. That the third, and presumably con- cluding, portion will be called for is not to be doubted, and the owner of the perfect work will be able to boast of an illustrated chronicle such as has only become possible during the last decade. What we regarded as a wild dream of JMI- Walter to show in a connected form the evolution of the world of Victoria out of that of Elizabeth or her sire seems on the point of realization.

The Blood Royal of Britain. Being a Roll of the Living Descendants of Edward IV. and Henry VII., Kings of England, and James III. of Scot- land. By the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval. (T. C. & E. C. Jack.)

THERE is no subject on which the opinions of men have changed more than family history and pedigree lore. In the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth century such studies were held to form about the lowest stratum of useless knowledge. Sneers at them are met with continually in the literature of those days, and are generally pointless and stupid. A notable Welsh- man once said, and was admired for the sentiment, that " family pedigrees were but a web woven by nature in which the spider of pride lurked"; and Sir Walter Scott was sometimes made fun of. and at others denounced, because his verse and .prose alike had a tendency to direct the thoughts of his readers to family history, heraldry, and allied sub-