Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/433

 ID'- s. iii. MAY 6, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

357

,p. vi), was the primeval language spoken in Eden. J. HOLDBN MACMICHAEL.

In G. Dennis's ' Guide to Sicily ' (Murray, 1864) the following occurs in the account of the Cathedral of Girgenti :

" But what is shewn as a great curiosity is a scrawl in some unintelligible character, which purports to be a letter written by his Satanic Majesty with his finger nails, and addressed to a nun, dated 11 August, 1676, the only portion of the pistle that is legible. Its genuineness no one in Girgenti ventures to call in question."

J. F. R.

TWINS (10 th S. Hi. 249, 318). Some amus- ing anecdotes relating to the close resemblance of twins are to be found in 'Memoirs of the Gemini Generals ' (London, Innes & Co., 1896), pp. 4-8. To quote them would occupy much space, and seems unnecessary, as the book can be purchased from any bookseller at a small price. Moreover, the profits on its sale go to the Gordon Boys' Home. W. S.

MR. MOXHAY, LEICESTER SQUARE Snow- .MAN (10 th S. iii. 307). The only building ever erected in the centre of Leicester Square was the " Great Globe." The lease was granted in 1851 to Mr. Wyld, the geographer, for ten years. In 1861 Mr. Wyld took down his .globe in pursuance of his agreement. The garden being in a neglected state, the Metro- politan Board of Works, in 1865, took posses- sion of it, under 26 Viet. cap. 13. An action was then entered by the Tulk family, and .the Board were declared trespassers. Baron Albert Grant subsequently purchased the site, and handed it over to the Board of "Works as the representative of the metro- politan public.

MR. C. A. WARD wrote in 5 th S. ii. 91 : " About the year 1847, perhaps, Mr. Moxey, archi- tect of the Hall of Commerce, now the Consolidated Bank in the City [Threadneedle Street], was treat- ing for the square, and had absolutely acquired, or supposed he had acquired, the right to remove the ^statue, and he offered it to a friend of mine."

This accounts for Mr. Moxhay's connexion with the square in question.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAX. 71, Brecknock Road.

IRISH FOLK-LORE (10 th S. iii. 204, 313). Nearly sixty years ago my father was quartered with his regiment at Athlone. The man who used to act as his "gillie " out shooting there remarked on one occasion "that he did not dare do so-and-so, because his priest would not like it. My father asked him what the priest, if displeased, could do to him, and the reply, given with every sign of conviction, was, "Sure he could turn me into a rabbit." H.

NOTES ON BOOKS, to. Aucassin and Nicolete. Done into English by

Andrew Lang. Illustrated by Gilbert James.

(Routledge & Sons.)

EDITIONS of Mr. Lang's masterly translation of the naive and delicious chantefable of 4 Aucassin and Nicolete,' one of the most attractive products of mediaeval literature, multiply apace. In November last we chronicled the appearance of an edition de luxe, issued by Mr. Nutt (see 10 th S. ii. 420), and we have now before us another and not less enviable possession in the shape of a volume of the attractive "Photogravure Series." In this pleasing and eminently artistic form it is a com- panion volume to the ' Omar Khayyam ' and the 4 Paradise Lost,' on the merits of which we have dwelt. Mr. Gilbert James's plates are twelve in number, and are both original and striking. 'Nicolete in Carthage' constitutes an attractive frontispiece. 'Nicolete as Prisoner' is prettily imaginative, showing the heroine with hands outstretched for aid from a window in a pignon. ' Aucassin on his Charger ' is bold and dramatic, and ' Nicolete Washed and Bathed ' is pretty and idyllic. "He kissed her lips and brows and eyes " might with advantage have disclosed a little more passion. Almost the only fault we can find with the illustrations is that we have not a single view of " the fair white feet of Nicolete," as described in the delightful burden to Mr. Graham Tomson's happy prefatory ballad. The work is one the art- lover should haste to secure. It is satisfactory to note the promise in the same series of Blair's 'Grave,' with Blake's plates. For this we wait with some impatience, an accessible reproduction being a desideratum.

Ix The Fortnightly Lucas Malet contemplates with equanimity the foreseen ' Resubjection of Women.' We will not dispute her vaticinatory utterances, but are rather struck with some of her observations on her own sex. The girl who has once experienced the joys of independence, or " even the minor excitements of going forth daily

to business finds the confinement of home-staying

and the manifold detail of housekeeping intolerable. She has, in point of fact, become nomadic." If these things be so, then, indeed, are surprises in store. Another prophetess is Ouida, who sees in the present war the menace of the yellow peril. Mr. H. B. Irving's 'The Calling of the Actor' consists of a lecture given to the Academy of Dramatic Art. A valuation of Mr. Stephen Phillips by Mr. E. A. Wodehouse decides that Mr. Phillips is a lyrist, and not a dramatist at all. The general estimate is unfavourable. 'The Real Chrysanthemum' is devoted to the account, and in part the laudation, of the Samurai woman. Sir Squire Bancroft's 'Dramatic Thoughts : Retrospective, Anticipative,' were first given to the world in a lecture at the Royal Institution. In The Nineteenth Century Mr. Daniel Crilly writes of ' The After-Diiiuer Oratory of America,' giving several amusing stories, one or two of which are to us quite new. The anecdotal element is certainly strong in American postprandial oratory. As a rule, American speaking is much better than English, though one or two of our best Irish speakers attain a line as high or even higher. In dealing with ' Some Noticeable Books ' a Newcastle