Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/26

 18 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. iv. JULY i, 1005. Sir Hovenden Walker, K.C.B.; Sir Cham- berlen Walker, M.D., " the famous man mid- wife," d. 1730 ; and John Walker, of Gurteen, King's Co. The last named married Anne Digby Foulke; from them descend, in the sixth generation, Singleton Maynard Walker and Chamberlen Richard Walker, of Dublin ; the Very Rev. James Carmichael, D.D., Co- adjutor Bishop of Montreal; and the Rev. Canon Carmichael, Chaplain of the Magdalen, Dublin. LLD. EPIGRAM ON A ROSE (10th S. iii. 309, 354, 370, 433).—A Latin version of this (second Asclepiad), by B. H. Kennedy, is in ' Between Whiles' (Deighton & Bell, 1882), p. 53; 'Sabrinse Corolla,' 1867, p. 335, or 1890, p. 175. The English is attributed to Somer- ville. H. K. ST. J. S. NOTES ON BOOKS. Ac. With the 7?nWrtHS in Manchuria. By Maurice Baring. (Metlmen & Co.) WITH this book in its main purpose and thread we are scarcely concerned, and the points in which it appeals directly to the majority of our readers may be regarded as subsidiary. So far as it is a contribution to anthropology (and in this respect it commands attention), it comes within our purview. It throws a light upon folk-speech and primitive culture, and is to some extent linked with those questions of comparative folk-lore which constitute our special domain. When a soldier tells a camp story concerning the Tsar and the Patriarch of the Church, which Mr. Baring seems to recall, we recognize it as, with one slight variant, that of the king and the Abbot of Canterbury, which, among other places, is found in the Percy MSB. printed by Dr. Furnivall. When the soldiers sing the song of the Siberian exiles, " Glorious sea of the holy Baikal," which Mr. Baring calls "one of the most melting melodies in the world," we wish for the musical notation. Throughout the entire record of travel and adventure in Manchuria we sigh for illustrative maps, though we grasp the fact that such, besides not being included in the scheme of the book, are unattainable and non-existent. What is said about the Chinese regarding fighting as vulgarity is profoundly interesting, and shows the possession by them of a civilization from which we are yet remote. After seeing a small Chinaman administer a sound thrashing to a big Cossack, Mr. Baring declares his convic- tion that "if the Chinese were organized, and ceased to think fighting vulgar, they would make excellent troops." May that day never come ! What in the account of the journey from Moscow to Kharbin strikes us with most astonishment is to find that the private soldiers with whom the author travelled had almost to a man read Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' This seems, in itself, almost incredible, but Mr. Baring saw at a fair in Moscow five or six different translations of Milton's works, and was told by a schoolmaster in the Tambov Government that' Paradise Lost' was the most popu- lar book in the village library. In no other army or country, and certainly not in England or America, is such a thing conceivable. Inquiries in the highest Russian quarters establish, however, the entire probability of the story. Concerning the book generally we can only say that it is the work of a singularly acute observer and reflective and unprejudiced thinker, and of a man endowed with a vigorous and cultivated style. Possessing among other acquirements of his diplomatic and literary career a knowledge of Russian language and literature as well as of those of other European countries and animated by the very spirit of adventures Mr. Baring was exactly the man for the task he undertook. Except in the case of one or two individuals with strong views and interests, into temporary association with whom he was compulsorily thrown, he con>- manded general sympathy and esteem, and what- ever was to be learnt was at his disposition. A close study of his work would do much to dissipate the mists of error in regard to things Russian in which Englishmen are content to dwell, and the day would be beneficial to the interest of peace when its perusal should be obligatory in schools. No work with which we are familiar shows more clearly how much international enmities and pre- judices are the outcome of ignorance. No less pleasant than edifying is the perusal of a work that is one of the best of its class. The volume is dedi- cated to Lord Brooke, a frequent companion of Mr. Baring in his adventures, and a sharer in hia occupation of special correspondent. A ffixlory of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales do>m to the Present Time.— Part I. The Hundred of Skenfrith. By Joseph Alfred Bradncy, F.S.A. "(Hughes & Clarke.) THERE is a great delight in finding some persons still among us who understand that the only proper form of publishing a county history is in folio. The men of the eighteenth century knew this, so did Surtees, Hunter, and the elder Raine. After their time a period of degradation set in, to the great loss of all those who treasure handsome volumes containing illustrations that are not only a pleasure to look upon, but are on a scale large enough to show the more minute details of what is represented. Mr. Bradney's 'History of Monmouthshire,' so far as yet pub- lished, must take a very hrgh place in our topo- graphical literature. We never read any book of the kind which was more carefully arranged. Many of the older books (though not all) were put together on a patchwork system. The authors wrote at great length on such subjects as interested themselves, and neglected others of as much or perhaps more importance. They also allowed their beliefs, political or religious, to interfere with their duty as historians, sometimes going so far as to neglect to record important facts concerning the Protestant Nonconformity or Catholicism of past times. Mr. Bradney is not guilty of oversights such as these, and he evidently knows our national annals too well to discom-se at length on facts that have been treated of again and again in popular books and even in- school histories, a fanlt which some of those who have undertaken to instruct us in our local annals have fallen into, perhaps from the mere desire to increase the number of their pages, or, as is often more pro- bable, being ignorant themselves, they were led to-