Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/291

 10 s. x. SEPT. 19, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tions, with its graceful fancy, its pleasant vein of comedy, and its tuneful songs. Certainly the reader who seeks literary enjoyment rather than philological instruction will find it the most attrac- tive piece in the volume, and Prof. Boas's admirable collation of the manuscripts and texts has provided a far more satisfactory version of it than any previously published.

The Quarterly Review. July. (John Murray.)

DR. A. W. VERRALL'S 'The First Homer' con- denses much that has been widely scattered. That definite conclusions have in all respects been attained it would be absurd to contend, but the roads are in a great degree cleared of rubbish. What the body of poems which go by the name of Homer once consisted of, we do not know ; two epics remain, and there is but the faintest prospect of recovering any others, even in fragments ; still, remote as it is, there is a chance. If the gods should have pity and confer on us a benefit, what reaches our hands, however fragmentary, cannot fail to throw light on what time has spared. It will necessarily confirm or disprove much that we know, or think we know, of the manners, arms, dress, and, above all, moral feelings of Homeric times, for it seems clear that those who wrote the epics described a world in which they lived. They could hardly have looked behind them and produced, in a way that could have deceived any one, a picture of a past of which they had but a knowledge derived from tradition. The historical novelists of the last century have demonstrated this. Scott was the man who for his time had the widest know- ledge of life as it was lived in former days in Scot- land and England, yet every student knows that his works contain ample poof how almost impos- sible it becomes to reproduce a world with which we ourselves have never been familiar. His blunders were never outrageous, as those of some of his successors have been ; but they are sufficiently patent to mark his work with the stamp of modernity.

No trustworthy reports have reached us regard- ing the blended shadows which to the minds ot our fathers coalesced in the personality of Homer, but those who read even in a translation cannot fail to see that the Troy epic is characterized by something not very far removed from antipathy for the dog, while the 'Odyssey' indicates an affection which some unwise persons have regarded as an evolution of modern type. This is offered as evidence that the same brain did not give currency to the two histories ; notwithstanding this it is by no means safe to arrive at the conclusion that the two writers were not contemporary.

' Forecasts of To-morrow,' by Dr. W. Barry, is a paper which, to be rightly understood, must not be merely skimmed, but read with great care. In that case it will probably make a permanent impression. It is evident that the prepossessions and passions of the world are moving rapidly, but few, if any, know to what point of the compass the motion is being directed. Dr. Barry, though hopeful, cannot point out its course; but before making up our own minds we should do well to weigh the words of one who is admittedly a careful thinker as well as a grave, picturesque, and powerful writer.

' The County of Somerset,' by the Rev. W. Ores- well, gives an interesting sketch of the Shire of the Five Forests, as we have sometimes heard it called.

The first Saxon settlers, we are told, approached from the south byway of Somerton, " in reality the Sea-moor-town, and gave their own name, Sea-moor ssetas, to the county." We do not wish to contro- vert this statement ; it would be rash as well as unfair to do so without the fullest investigation ; but if we are not mistaken, the writer's interpreta- tion has not been accepted by all students of geographical names. Nearly every one who has visited Somerset has noted the wonderful grace of the Perpendicular towers which add so much beauty to the county. Freeman cannot have been the first to admire them, but we believe it was owing to- his praise that they became widely appreciated. Mr. Greswell, we are pleased to find, has given the noteworthy men of Somerset due attention, and in some cases notes regarding their forefathers and other relatives have been furnished. The words devoted to Blake are admirable, and we are glad to- find that the reader's attention is drawn to a fact commonly forgotten that Blake was a soldier as well as a sailor. As to the personal character of Blake, Mr. GreswelPs judgment is all that could be wished. Clarendon and other Royalist writers who have trod in his footsteps have led their readers to regard Blake's Puritanism as of a sour and narrow kind. This is a great mistake : he was, as is pointed out, "a genial and sympathetic West- Countryman."

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. SEPTEMBER. MR. THOMAS BAKER still keeps us well supplied' with Theology. His Catalogue 530 opens with a fine complete set of Mansi's collection of Councils, Florence and Venice, 1759-98, 31 vols., folio, 6W. Few of the great theological libraries, Mr. Baker tells us, have complete copies. Another rare book is the Roman Breviary translated into English by the late Marquess of Bute, 61. 10s. Modern works, include Hastings's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' 5 vols., 47. 10s. ; Ginsburg's 4 Ecclesiastes,' 18s. 6d. ; and 1 Newman's ' Apologia,' first edition, 18s. There are- works by Dean Stanley, Trench, Cardinal Wiseman, and others.

Mr. Henry Davey's Catalogue 11 opens with the original warrant appointing Elizabeth Wickley to the office of Rat Catcher of the Tower of London,, signed by Sir Thomas Chicheley, Master General of the Ordnance to Charles II., dated the 30th of March, 1672. Under Books is a set of " Books about Books," large paper, 5 vols., Japanese vellum (only 150 copies so printed), 1893-4, 21. 10s. There are four catalogues of T. Osborne, bookseller, of Gray's Inn, 1736-40, \2s.Qd. As an instance of prices at that time,, it may be noted that Caxton's ' Sayings of the Philo- sophers ' is offered at II. 11s. 6d. There is an interest- ing Junius item the splendid edition of the Letters; printed by McDowafl, 12 portraits, 1812, 11. 6s. Under London is a memento of Newgate being a folio scrapbook containing a collection of portraits. of notorious prisoners, also exterior and interior views, selections from periodicals, &c., including ' Gossip of the Gallows,' by Berry, half-morocco, 21. 2s. The quarto edition of Byron, 8 vols., original' cloth, 1839, is II. 5s. ; and a fine copy of Browne's ; 'York Minster,' 2 vols., royal 4to, half-morocco,. 1847, it. 12s.

Mr. William Glaisher's Supplementary Catalogue 360 is devoted to Remainders. We note the Dore Bible, 21. 5s. ; ' Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century,' edited by Max Rooses, 10s.; Newman's;