Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/241

 s. iv. SEPT. 2, lacs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 199 register of the college at Autun contains an entry such as the following?—"M. Neapoleonne [sic] de Buonaparte pour trois mois vingt jours cent onze Hvres, douze sols, huit deniers, llll. 12s. Sd." It ia not the spelling of the name that perplexes, though the absence of any accent at such a period in baffling, but the remarkably English appearance of the figures. Accents are, however, rarely employed. We thus hear of ' La Mecanique Celeste' of Laplace and other instances of the kind. We have also " Giomale Politico," an obvious misprint for Cfior- nale Politico, and " Phelipeaux,:'in which the accent is intrusive, for Phelippeaux. These mistakes are significant only as conveying the idea of want of attention. The cover, which has the Bonaparte arms in colour, is very gay. Iff.diwcal Afanchexter and the Beginning* of Lanca- shire. By James Tait, M. A., Professor of Ancient and Mediaeval History. (Manchester, University Press.) IT is appropriate that the University of Manchester should begin the " Historical Series" of its pub- lications with a work relating to Manchester in the Middle Ages. Prof. Tait has had a twofold object in view. One is to trace the emergence of Lanca- shire from the Honour of Lancaster. In so doing he shows that Lancashire is the most modern of English counties, and has no place in Domesday Book, where its present domain is divided between Cheshire and Yorkshire. In the other section of his book Mr. Tait carefully compares the manorial charter of Manchester with similar documents relating to other places, and in this way throws considerable light upon some of the problems as to the status and condition of the town in the Middle Ages. The name Manchester has always been applied in an indefinite way to very different areas. The barony of Manchester was larger than the manor, and this again was larger than the town- ship, which may be considered as the kernel of the present city. Prof. Tait may be congratulated on nis careful and suggestive study of mediaeval con- ditions. There is one very curious point. Although Salford was before the Conquest, as now. a royal manor, and gave its name to the hundred of which Manchester is a part, it has always been in the parish of Manchester, and still has a share in the election of churchwardens and sidesmen for the cathedral. Of this puzzling arrangement we have seen no explanation. Manchester is an in- tensely modern town, yet it had, as Prof. Tait'a book shows, a vigorous life in the Middle Ages, and its origin can be traced to a Roman fortress, not improbably on the site of a British settlement. In Praixe of Book*. By H. Swan.—A Dictionary of Economic Terms. By Frank Bowes, M.A.—A Descriptive Index to Sliakespf.aie's Character*.— tt'ho was He ? a Concixe Dictionary of General Biography- By Edward Latham. (Routledge & Sons.) THKSE four useful little volumes have been added to Messrs. Routledge's valuable " Miniature Refer- ence Library." La Roulolle. Par Augusta Latouche. (Paris, Delagrave.) WE may not further concern ourselves with this attractive and amply illustrated volume than in commending it to those who seek a book health) _n tone and fit for girls. As such it was "couronn£ jar 1'Academic Francaise." There are those among our readers who may be glad to hear of such. Botilotte, which will not be found in dictionaries, signifies a caravan such as is used by gipsies or The Scottish Historical Review (Glasgow, Mac- Lehose & Sons) continues to hold its own, and secomes more and more interesting as it grows older. The opening paper in the July number, by Vlr. Andrew Lang, is on ' The Household of Mary, .Jueen of Scots, in 1573.' A list of her pensioners* [or that year is preserved among the manuscripts in the library of the Inner Temple, of which the author has printed a copy made for him by Miss E. M. Thompson. Opinions may always remain wide apart on many and important points regard- ing the character of Queen Mary, but on at least one of them we have conclusive evidence. Mr. Lang says, " Mary was the most generous and most grateful of mistresses." Her servants loved her. " She forgot no loyal retainer, and never wearied" in securing their welfare. On their part they never wished, or very seldom wished, to leave her,'r although her finances must have been much re- stricted during the years in which she was a captive, even if what was due to her from France reached her hands. The Rev. R. C. MacLeod has examined the records preserved at Dunvegan, the seat of the MacLeods of Skye. We do not think they have as yet been calendared, but trust the work may soon, be undertaken, for they evidently contain many things of interest, and throw a light not to be found elsewhere on a former state of things which, though very interesting, is not always pleasant to contem- plate. In a document of 1692 we have a scrap of foreign news which our readers who are interested in seismology may like to trace further. It seems there was a great earthquake in Flanders and France, "when the earth was visibly seen moving like the waves of the sea." If this were so, some further account of what took place must, one would suppose, have come down to us from eyewitnesses. The Hon. George Sinclair discourses of the battle of Solway Moss, which he rightly enough describes as " a discreditable episode in Scottish history." He holds that the leader of the defeated forces was only in small measure to blame for the rout that occurred. In this we are in full agreement with him : should, indeed, go further in the direction of exculpation than he has ventured. Here, as in so many other cases, we find persons called historians trespassing into regions which none but the writer of romance can occupy without inflicting great damage on our faculty for grasping things as they were. Mr. J. C. Watt gives a gnod account of Dunottar and its lords, the Keiths, Earls Marischal of Scotland. They were a great, race, members of which were famous in continental wars as well as in their own country. There was a tinge of romance in some of the children of this powerful house which renders them of more than common interest. The portion devoted to reviews of books is, as usual, excellent. MR. JOSEPH FOSTER, the genealogist, who died 29 July, was an occasional contributor to our columns, in which, under the signature ST. VEDAST, he wrote on the Washington ancestry (7th S. viii. 456).
 * raveiling mountebanks.