Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/51

 io<s.i.jA*.9,i9G4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Walpole's letters were issued between 1798, when 376 of them first saw the light, and 1857, when Cunningham's edition promised in eight volumes, but enlarged to nine was issued by Richard Bentley, who was responsible for previous collec- tions edited by Lord Dover, John Wright, R. Vernon Smith, and the Rev. J. Mitford. Since 1857 over 400 new letters have been recovered, raising the entire number now published to 3,061. Suppressed and obliterated passages, the history of some of which is curious, have been, so far as is possible, restored, the chronology of the entire series has been carefully checked, illustrative notes and comments have been added, and the edition may be accepted as virtually com- plete and final. Access for purposes of revision has been in one or two instances withheld with \vhat seems almost like churlishness. In most cases, however, constant efforts to facilitate Mrs. Paget Toynbee's task have been made, and the edition is dedicated to the Earl and Countess Waldegraye, who possess at Chewton Priory the finest collection of \Yalpo1e MSS.

Highly as they have always been rated, the Wai- pole letters ha% r e not even yet obtained adequate recognition. That Walpole is the best English letter-writer is generally admitted, though in this instance, as in others, fertility is one of his chief claims to distinction. To have left among so many brilliant pages not a single dull page is, in itself, no small triumph. One still higher is accomplished in giving us, as he does, the very best picture we possess of the social aspects in England of that eighteenth century which we never weary of con- templating. In a way Walpole is to be compared with Pepys. The men were, of course, as unlike as they can be. What Pepys did, however, for a few years of the seventeenth century Walpole did for more than half of the eighteenth that is, supplied a series of pictures so lifelike and exact that from them we obtain a view clearer and more definite than can be gained from all other sources. Among minor points of resemblance it may be indicated that both had to wait long before their great work was set in an adequate form before the world, and that in the case of each an unsavoury residuum was left which defied the courage of their latest editor. In the case of Pepys we have a fair idea what are the passages Mr. Wheatley with- holds ; in that of Walpole we are left in entire ignorance, though we are prepared to find cynicism instead of indiscretion the cause of the suppressions. We are not comparing the works in value. To obtain a couple of years more of a record such as that of Pepys we would pay gladly the most exorbitant price that could easily be demanded. No similar extravagance of joy would attend the recovery of further Tetters of Walpole. Yet all such would be most valuable and welcome. From Mrs. Paget Toynbee's introduction we learn that tampering with the MSS. of Walpole is not unknown. For the circumstances under which transcripts of the original letters were executed by Walpole, and for the manner in which Walpole's intentions were thwarted in part by his secretary Kirgate, who made what seem to be unauthorized copies, we must refer the reader to the editor's preface, p. xvi. Mrs. Paget Toynbee says at the same reference :

" On examining Horace Walpole's transcripts

the surprising discovery was made that a very large number of passages have been suppressed in the printed version, although no indication what-

ever of any omission was given by the original editors." Many of these passages, occurring in the earlier letters, are pronounced "quite unfit for publication/' Whatever it has been found possible- to restore to the text has been restored, and omis- sions from the text and the notes are, it is stated, plainly and sufficiently indicated. Letters to Hannah More, of which there are thirty-four, have also been tampered with and disfigured by the cancelling of passages and the erasure of proper names. Worst of all, the chaste Hannah inserted in the text, apparently in her own handwriting, words and phrases of which Walpole is guiltless. The best has- been done to remedy these laches, but the work of destruction has been in some cases only too care- fully carried out.

Until the work is further advanced, and we ar& in possession of the careful analytical index which* is to be a special feature, it is impossible to deal fully with it. The scheme, commendable in itself, is, so far as we can see, finely carried out. We know not what conceivable boon could be more welcome to the scholar. How zealously the editor has worked is known to our readers, and the result is proportional to the labours bestowed. Vol. iv. ends in 1760 with the death of George II., and the most interesting portion of the record, though nob perhaps the most historically important, is to- begin. Each volume contains four illustrations, consisting principally of photogravure reproduc- tions of Walpole and his circle. These are excellent in themselves and of undying interest. Nothing can be better than the general execution of the work, which will be a grace as well as a necessity to most shelves.

A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, <L-c. By Sir Bernard Burke. Edited by Ashworth P. Burke. (Har- rison & Sons.)

THE pre-eminence of Burke's ' Peerage,' never seriously contested, remains unassailable. Efforts to impugn its authority are not unknown, and endeavours to establish some form of rivalry are continuous. So far as they mean anything, the former constitute an attempt to undermine the historical basis of much genealogy, while the latter are but familiar aspects of trade competition. What our great historical families have to tell concerning their own origin and annals is communicated to Burke. The information thus derived is subjected to minute investigation, in the conduct of which the best and most trustworthy heralds and genea- logists are engaged, a list of those by whom the labours of Mr. Ashworth P. Burke are assisted embracing the names of almost all in whom public faith is placed. The latest issue now appears, bringing up the information to December, 1903- It is, of course, as complete and trustworthy as the best of its predecessors, and remains praiseworthily full in regard to the information it supplies as to precedence. So far as regards the peerage, the year 1903 was, for reasons easily grasped, less event- ful than its predecessor, the number of peers whose deaths are recorded being only fourteen as against twenty-three. Three peerages became extinct, those of Pirbright, DeVesci,and Rowton, all three recent and popular additions to the Upper House. Lord. Rowton leaves unfinished and, it is to be feared, all but unattempted his promised life of Lord Beaconsfield, his former chief, but will be long remembered by the industrial dwellings that bear