Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/483

 10 s. XL MAY is, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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brought into occasional touch with the movements, social, political, and artistic, of the age. To the same cause is it owing that two of the six, Kitty Fisher and Grace Dalrymple Elliott, figure in the beadroll of the ' Dictionary of National Biography.'

On the soundness of Mr. Bleackley's groundwork there is no need to enlarge in this place : he digs deep, and raises a lightsome edifice on massive foundations. But a word must be said in praise of the architectonic skill shown in this his latest j superstructure. Here material was scanty, and : much of it poor and drossy : yet so cunningly i wrought is it. and so judiciously disposed, that you i nowhere find a coarse, ugly, or offensive feature. ; To examine the work piecemeal within our limits ] is impossible, but one or two impressive details may be indicated.

Foremost of these stands the story of the pro- tracted struggle between the Selwyn clique and the Bill of Rights Society over the fate of the brothers Patrick and Matthew Kennedy, a pair of roistering Irish blackguards of the lowest type, who, after they had been tried and sentenced to death for the murder of a watchman, obtained, Patrick a reprieve, and Matthew a respite, from the King. Mr. Bleackley's account of this curious quarrel into which before the close half the great world had rushed or been dragged is a pattern of clear and lively exposition. It is by the presence of such episodes matters of public moment, carefully sifted, and related with spirit and precision that the book justifies its existence.

In connexion with this story should be read Crabb Robinson's report of the still stranger case of Abraham Thornton, a Warwickshire rustic who, on the 17th of November, 1817, was had up at West- minster Hall, after acquittal on a charge of murder, for retrial at the suit of the next of kin, and escaped by challenging the appellant to the wager of battle.

The Parliamentary proceedings against Wilkes for the printing of ' The Essay on Woman ' form the subject of another well-managed bit of narrative. Seven years after her retirement from the town, Fanny Murray, then Mrs. David Ross, had the mortification of finding her name and former occupation recalled by the press in connexion with this affair. Of the four reformed rakes she alone proved her sincerity by a long period (over twenty years) of unswerving loyalty as a wife. Kitty i Fisher died within a few months of her marriage ; | Kitty Kennedy, six years after her union with j Robert Stratford Byron, returned to her old friend John St. John ; and Nancy Parsons (whose character, ! as here portrayed, seems to have been a curious, blend of Becky Sharp and the Fotheringay), gave, as Lady Maynard, occasion for grave scandal by her intimacy with the Duke of Bedford. She died, | however (near Paris), in the strongest possible odour j of sanctity, and her body was interred, not with ! maimed, but mingled rites :

"The bishop had ordered that all due honour should be rendered to the piety and good works of the deceased. The funeral sermon was preached by j the Protestant president, in the pulpit of a Catholic j church, to a numerous Catholic auditory, the Catholic clergy attending the service. The corpse

was laid in the tomb with the lighted tapers and ,

the Catholic dirge, the prayers of the Genevan j Church, and the tears of the mourning peasantry." No doubt Nancy, who ever liked to do the thing handsomely, had laid by a little sum sufficient to provide this well-graced and striking curtain.

Index to ' Book- Price* Cwrent: 1897-1906. By William Jaggard. (Elliot Stock.)

MR. JAGGAKD deserves the warm thanks of all bibliographers, collectors, and lovers of valuable- books for adding to his first Index, which covers the years 1887 to 1896, this second volume, which is more than double the size of the first, including, we are told, about 67,000 more entries. Altogether,, there are some 100,000 entries, and the indexing has been done in a most liberal and careful fashion. The reader will be able to follow the fortunes of many famous books in the market for a decade without any trouble, and the saving of time effected can only be appreciated by those who have hunted through the various volumes in order to make comparisons. The labour must have been immense.

'Book-Prices Current' has established itself as an admirable manual, and Mr. Jaggard points out that " one of the most trustworthy demonstrations of its virtues, perhaps, is that it has witnessed the birth- (and decease) of several rivals both at home and abroad."

The fluctuations of prices in the book world, as in- other worlds, are extraordinary, and occasionally nonsensical. Mr. Jaggard has ample reason for observing :

"That inane slave-mistress we call 'fashion'" exercises almost as much power in the book- world as in that of dress. A craze springs up like a breeze, and its votaries fan it into a gale. Yesterday it was Bartolozzi, Bewick, Dickens, Kipling, Lang, and' minor poet on major paper. To-day, it may be Americana, Baxter prints, coloured books, Cruik- shank, Kelmscotts, mezzotints, or Rowlandson."

Our cousins across the sea show a great interest in American history, and will value the long sub- alphabet of 'Americana' provided. Here is an< entirely reasonable and, we may expect, permanent keenness to secure rare books.

The Introduction, which conveys a good deal of information in a pleasant style, ends with the hope- that Horace's phrase " Quod petis hie est " will De- justified. We have no doubt that a host of people- will find in this volume exactly what they want.

Ix The National Review politics and the German-, peril occupy a good half of the number, two trans- lations being offered one of a popular German pamphlet, supposed to be a lecture delivered in 1911 by Arabi Pasha, the other a study of the German army by Van Pelet-Narbonne. Mr. Eustace Miles in 'Is Milk too Cheap?' gives evidence of widespread adulteration, and contends that

rices for that invaluable food ought to|be raised, ir Home Gordon explains in dealing with the 4 Australian Cricketers ' that they expect each member of their team to " receive nearer 800/. than 6001. clear profit." The commercial wrangle which preceded their arrival in this country showed that the old-fashioned ideas of amateurism are all gone in this case. The Australian team are clearly professionals, and unfortunately they delay winning matches in order to secure a third day's gate-money. Mr. Sidney Pickering in ' An Author's Devil ' has a keen commentary on the unpleasant licence of some female novelists. Mr. A. Maurice Low's account of American affairs is highly complimentary to Mr. Taft, 'who, it appears, combines the virtues of McKinley and Cleveland, i.e.. tact and persuasive- ness with rugged force. " Observer " in ' The End of the Era of Railway Competition' considers the- State ownership of railways.