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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JCXE n, 190*.

Stevenson through the Cevennes. Mr. Frederick Lees has obtained from well-known Frenchmen opinions concerning our degenerate stage. There are Englishmen who could, "an they would," tell him more on a subject on which much might be said. The question, ' What is a Lady ? ' is answered by saying she is a gentlewoman. This is doubtless accurate, but not altogether illuminating. Part vi. of ' Historical Mysteries,' by Mr. Lang, in the Cornhill, deals with ' The Murder of Escovedo.' In this case the mystery has nothing to do with the manner in which the crime was committed or the identity of the murderer, but is wholly con- cerned with the motive of the deed. Sir Herbert Maxwell supplies, from the latest sources, a deeply interesting account of Sir John Moore, and the Dean of Westminster describes ' Westminster Abbey in the Early Part of the Seventeenth Cen- tury.' Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell describes from an American standpoint some of the mysteries of ' London Chambers,' and Mr. C. J. Cornish gives interesting particulars concerning ' Partridge Rear- ing in France.' In ' At the Sign of the Ship,' in Longman's, Mr. Lang utters an incidental phrase the value of which we should like to see acknow- ledged. It is to the effect that " all lectures are a nuisance to a studious person," and the utterance should be written in letters of gold. We have attended lectures innumerable, and never received the slightest gain from any. Mr. Lang writes justly and amusingly on Herbert Spencer. 'A Journey from Edinburgh to Paris in 1802' is striking and interesting. There is some excellent fiction. Dr. Japp sends to the Gentleman's a pleasant 'Vision of Trees.' Mr. A. M. Stevens, in ' Tobacco and Drama,' speaks of allusions to smoking in plays, such as 'The Fawn,' 'Blurt Master Constable,' 'A Fair Quarrel,' &c. 'A Plea for Cowper' is advanced. It is welcome, but we did not think it required.

GERMANY, which takes a vivid interest in English philology, is to produce at the beginning of next vear a new periodical devoted to modern English, entitled Bausteine. Prof. Gustav Kriiger, already well known to us as an excellent writer on English, and Leon Kellner are the editors, and they are supported by the new Philological Union of Vienna and various scholars, the English representative of the scheme being Mr. N. W. Thomas, who can be addressed on the subject at 7, Coptic Street, W.C. The circular gives on its first page a formidable list of words which are not satisfactorily rendered in <Jerman dictionaries e.g., agency, aggressive, argue, baffle, effusive, poignant, strenuous, distracted, and bounder, a term which, we note, has been applied by a distinguished professor to St. Paul. Special efforts are to be made to render the literary and aesthetic adjectives " of a Gosse or Archer," who will occasionally, we dare say, afford occasion for some "furious thinking," if we may adopt the French idiom. Great writers, such as Milton and Dryden, will also have their vocabularies examined, and we hope that some effort will be made to fix the phraseology of science. Some words of the kind used by Erasmus Darwin will be treated in the first number, as well as Parliamentary language and the group of words "suggest, suggestion, sug- gestive." The scheme seems to us excellent, and may, we hope, help us to arrest and revive the fast- fading glories of our tongue. Only we trust that scholars of our own will be allowed to supervise

and occasionally revise views on difficult English passages put forward by German ingenuity. While we envy and admire Teutonic erudition in this matter, as in others, we see occasionally things suggested which every-day practice of our own tongue pronounces impossible or mistaken. English slang is a snare for the outsider e.g., Baumann, in his ' Londinismen,' a capital book, mistakes wholly the meaning of " That 's not cricket." The Times has been boasting of its pure English ; but how many foreigners know what the " wallflower" we once saw flourishing in its account of a social function means? Further, our best writers, like Sophocles, often have the vernacular latent in their dignified periods, or a piece of homeliness half peering through their grandeur in a way which would defy the deep student of many philological dissertations. And words are often brought to- gether with a happy perversity because they do not bear the value of their usual combination. These are the graces and subtleties of language bound up with its use as a living instrument. There is the further difference in humour and sentiment between two peoples which may be so slight as occasionally to defy verbal analysis. But we expect the best results from this spirited enterprise, for which that splendid storehouse the ' New English Dictionary ' supplies unlimited material, especially as there is a section which flatters us most sincerely. A pillory for journalese would be an interesting addition to the periodical, though the offenders would pro- bably regard it as nothing but an advertisement of their ability to be " up to date."

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J. P. B. ('Recommended to Mercy'). MR. LATHAM stated ante, p. 232, that Mrs. Houstoun's novel was not the work he sought.

LTTCIS ("Moon and the Weather"). Proof un- fortunately too late. Second sentence was modified.

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