Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/578

478 title, yet in the editor's preface ('Dempsteri Præfatio') I find Joannem Rosinurn and Joannis Gualtii. In "Catalogus Auctorum qui Librorum Catalogos, Indices......Scriptis consignârunt: ab Antonio Teisserio......Genevæ," 1686 (Pars Altera, 1705), the various indexes contain hundreds of men whose first names were John. The name is invariably Joannes.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Great God's Hair. Translated from the Original Manuscript by F. W. Bain. (Parker & Co.) has yielded to our solicitation, and has given us yet one more extract from the reputed Sanskrit MS. to which we have previously referred (see 9th S. v. 158; xii. 279; 10th S. i. 498). While, however, his new work is in no respect inferior to the preceding, has the same exquisite perfume, and ministers in a no less degree to delight, it finds us in a less credulous mood. There is no Sanskrit MS. from which these delightful books, partly fable, partly apologue, are taken. We defy Mr. Bain to show us such. The stories are pure works of imagination, invented by one who is saturated with the knowledge of Sanskrit and with Oriental lore and feeling. We had from the first a suspicion that this was so, but we were taken in by Mr. Bain's admirable art. Not the less welcome or dear are the stories because the secret is fathomed. 'The Great God's Hair' has as its key-note the idea, which "is the very core of Hindoo manners," that "the husband is the good wife's god," an idea the acceptance of which renders comprehensible to us such things as suttee. In eloping with Ranga, a Rajpoot of royal descent, robbed of his kingdom, who has entered her carefully guarded bedroom and captured her heart, Wanawallari has offended all the gods except Water Lily, a species of Psyche, who has aided and abetted her flight. Disguising himself as a Brahman, Indra, as representative of the assembled conclave, visits her, and tries by his arguments and remonstrances to win her into abandoning her husband and rejoining the king her father. Encountered at every point by the heroine, a typically lovely and cultivated woman, with an unparalleled knowledge of fable, Indra is at length baffled and converted, and retires from the unequal contest, leaving the lady to make her peace with her father. This, with some slight aid from Water Lily, she does, and the story ends happily and charmingly. It is hard to say which is the more enchantingly drawn, the heroine or her divine protector. A perusal of the work cannot fail to send the reader in search of the previous tales of the same writer, who has invented a class of literature of which we can scarcely have too much.

Dunstable: its History and Surroundings. By Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S. (Stock.) can commend Mr. Smith's book as a complete and intelligent account of the interesting old town of Dunstable, of which he is the first freeman. He shows himself to have a familiar acquaintance with every nook and corner of the place, and a wide knowledge of its history and antiquities. We may remark that the horseshoe in the seal of Dunstable is evidently intended to bear a punning allusion to the ordinary staple or hasp, the ancient name of the town being Dunstaple. This is overlooked on p. 108, though recognized on a later page (156). If Mr. Smith has evidence for his statement that Houghton Regis at one time bore the name "sælig Houghton," from which comes the modern by-name "Silly Houghton" ―sailig, fortunate, being a supposed synonym for "royal"― he should have produced it. It looks like a mere guess. The well-known Greek palindrome on the font of Caddington Church is unhappily articulated (p. 140), though, of course, the fault may lie in the original. We notice, also, the misprint secundem on p. 67. The book is very prettily illustrated, and the topographical and historical matter is relieved by two welcome chapters on the traditions, folk-lore, and superstitions of the locality.

The Flemings in Oxford. Edited by J. R. Magrath, D.D. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) this somewhat ambiguous title the Provost of Queen's has published, with copious annotations, a hitherto unprinted MS. illustrative of university life during the last half of the seventeenth century. It is with the experiences of the scions of a Cumberland family, so named, while "at Oxford" (which surely is the customary phrase), and not with any settlement there of the Netherlanders, that the book is concerned. Among the MSS. preserved at Rydal Hall are the accounts and correspondence of Daniel Fleming, who matriculated at Queen's College in 1650. Of no special value in themselves, these documents have the interest which always belongs to relics of a bygone state of society, and they give us many quaint revelations as to the manners and customs of a university in which the mediaeval spirit still prevailed. The editing of a work like this involves an amount of patient andclaborious research which only those can appreciate who have undertaken a similar task. The incidental allusions to persons, places, and usages afford an ample field for comment to a conscientious editor, and to the elucidation of these Dr. Magrath has devoted his leisure for many years past with painstaking industry. Whenever, for instance, the writer refers, as he frequently does, in a succinct and allusive way to some purchases of books, full bibliographical particulars are supplied of the works in question, and their title-pages, however long, set out at full length. If he takes a journey, the places he visits on his route are enumerated, and the distances given with the faithful accuracy of a Baedeker. When a contemporary is mentioned, a short biographical sketch, with extracts from parochial registers, puts the reader in possession of all that he needs to know all which minute dealing must have involved no small amount of labour. It is not always easy to draw the line between too little and too much; Dr. Magrath certainly leans to the side of liberality. Some amusing glimpses into the undergraduate life of the period are afforded us in the Fleming correspondence. A brother of Daniel's writes to him an affectionate letter which, compiled on Mr. Bouncer's plan, incorporates whole periods from the 'Familiar Letters of James Howell,' then recently published. The weaknesses of the college man, it seems, are perennially the same. His tutor expresses a fear "that his expences amount high, not so much upon the account of Treats, as Curiositys.