Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/554

 458

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. in. g UNE 10, 1905.

ing the illusions to which explorers, from Columbus downwards, were subject, and the way in which one country after another took the lead in that struggle for commercial supremacy and the control of the traffic with the East which led to unpre- cedented and undreamt-of discoveries ; the wild search after the Earthly Paradise by which Colum- bus was deluded ; the long-continued dream of a North-West passage ; and the insensate and mur- derous pursuit of gold. Hakluyt is sensible of English misdeeds, and complains that whereas Spain and Portugal breed no pirates perhaps an overbold assertion " we and the French are most infamous for our outrageous, common, and daily piracies." Prof. Raleigh chronicles afresh some of the noblest utterances of the navigators : Master Thome's magnificent declaration concerning Eng- lishmen that " there is no land uninhabitable and no sea unnavigable," and Gilbert's immortal declara- tion that "we are as near to Heaven by sea as by land." Outside Shakespeare there is no better or more inspiriting book to read.

The latest volumes of ' Hakluytus Posthumus ' are principally occupied with Eastern exploration, and treat largely of our difficulties with the Portu- guese, who are as high-handed and insolent (we use conventional terms of disparagement) in the Eastern world as the Spaniards were in the West. No attempt is, of course, made to look at questions of justice or right from any but a purely English standpoint. Though sad for the most part, these records are deeply interesting, and supply some early pictures of social life. In the English voyages beyond the East Indies to the "Hands of Japan," c.,we find, in a truly "imperial" and shall we say? Jingo spirit, our "just Commerce nobly vindicated against Turkish Treachery, victoriously defended against Portugall Hostility, gloriously advanced against Moorish and Ethnike Perfidie ; hopefully recovering from Dutch Malignitie ; justly maintained against ignorant and malicious Ca- lumnie " surely " a lame and impotent conclusion." It is amusing to find the "Japonians" "terrific and skare" the children, as the French sometimes did theirs, with the name of the Lord Talbot. Under present conditions, when attention is so closely directed to the East, the appearance of these volumes is most opportune.

Luard Memorial Series. Vol. 111. Grace Bool- B. Part II. Edited for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, with Introduction, by Mary Bateson. (Cambridge, University Press.) WE noticed at 9 th S. xii. 499 Part I. of this collection. Part II., now before us, consists of the accounts of the Cambridge proctors from 1311 to 1544. The entries which these officials made as a whole are dull, but the very interesting light which they throw here and there on the early history of Cambridge fully justifies their publication. They are mostly in Latin, some of it of a mediaeval character, which will puzzle the pattern classical scholar of to-day ; but Miss Bateson's admirable introduction will reveal to the ordinary reader the main points with which they deal. The monastic system, which had its merits for men of learning, has long disappeared, but the " Dolphin," a Cambridge inn here men- tioned, survived, we think, till the nineteenth century, and Sturbridge Fair, a great source of dispute, figured in the same period in the Cam- bridge official ' Calendar,' as if it was a saint's day. Gifts of fish to eminent persons are very often men-

tioned, and we imagine that the Cam offered good sport, being much cleaner at this time than in modern days, in which it has been described as a "distended drain." In 1521 a charge is entered for drink and expenses at the burning of Luther's books, and in the same year Cambridge represen- tatives went to London to flatter Wolsey and arrange for the suitable denigration of the reformer who was to make the biggest protest in the world's history. Twenty years later we find a payment for the transcription of the Chancellor's edict on the pronunciation of Latin and Greek. A similar edict nowadays, if arranged among our chief uni- versities, would save a good deal of unedifying con- fusion among scholars young and old. We give a few items gathered here and there of sums paid : 20*'. for inquiries concerning vagabonds and light women ; 3-y. 3d. for "gaugyng yrena" ; 18s-. 3d. for a* pike (Input), a tench, and a bream, given to the Duke of Norfolk ; 2*-. 3il. for a rope to pull a bell ; and 3s. IQd. for cleaning the schools. The index. is, as before, admirable, and it is not too much to say that it forms a series of academic biographies in which the bare hints of the text are skilfully re- corded, and the confusions caused by variations of spelling are skilfully unravelled. Places and things, too, figure here. Thus we are referred to " Mid- sun) mer Fair," the memory of which is still pre- served in the "Midsummer Common" of to-day, and to chains for books under ' Library.' There are considerable expenses for lead (p. 209), not entered, under the same heading ; and we notice that the plumber's two servants got fourpence " to buy t hem- gloves with." A third volume, Book f, is pro- mised to complete this valuable series.

Visitation of Ireland. Edited by Frederick Arthur

Crisp. Vol. IV. (Privately printed.) MR. CRISP'S sumptuous volumes, privately issued from what is known as the Grove Park Press, are the delight of the bibliophile, and the indispensable companion of the genealogist, the herald, and the historian. The first volume of the 'Visitation of Ireland,' the joint production of Mr. Crisp and the- late Dr. Howard, was issued in 1897. Vols. II. and III. appearing at subsequent dates, Vol. IV. being herewith presented, and Vol. V. in the press. The earlier volumes have not come in our way, though other works, kindred in aim and in excellence of execution, have reached us. See 9 th S. xi. 360 and; 458. Each of these contained portraits, pedigrees, and coats of arms, together with autographs, book-plates, and other illustrations. Among those families pedigrees of which are supplied in the present volume are the Earl of Annesley, Lord Athlumney, the Earl of Cavan, Viscount Dillon, the Earl of Gosford, and the Earl of Wicklow, together with Blake of Corbally, Bowen of Bowed'* Court, Greene of Millbrook and of Hallahoise, Lyon of Old Park, and O'Donovan of Clan Cathel the illustrations including book-plates of Swanzy of Newry, co. Armagh, John Sandes of Greenville, Alfred Molony of Cragg, Sir Edward Thomas Bewley, James J. Fuller, and Luke Gerald Dillon. Full armorial bearings are to be found of the various noblemen mentioned, together with those of Sir Henry Arthur Blake, G.C.M.G. There are in addition silhouettes of Edward and Mary Bew- ley, and armorial coats and autographs of the families named. In every case the pedigrees, a in the older visitations, start with the grandparents of the representatives of the family, and contain