Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/361

 ID- 8. iv. OCT. 7,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 299 tunny men such a process is not disenchanting at all. Such a sentence is, in fact, an instance of the kind of verbiage that is produced when everything a inao writes finds immediate acceptance anf prompt remuneration. We could advance other instances of writing equally glib. When, however Stevenson proceeds to talk about himself he is as pleasing and attractive as ever, and the book, o: which this is virtually the first edition, constitutes a welcome and considerable addition to Stevenson literature. There is, of course, in the opening portion much judicious criticism and sapienl observation; and when we come to 'Books which have Influenced Me' and subsequent essays, in- cluding ' My First Book,' we are in a world ol enchantment. Few subjects are pleasanter in them- selves or constitute more suggestive reading than the account of the influences to which a writer ol intelligence and repute has been subject. Concern- ing himself Stevenson is often charmingly expansive, and in some of his present contributions he is at his best. Lovers of literature generally, and admirers of Stevenson in particular, must at once give these characteristic essays a home in their affections and memories, and the volume containing them a place on their shelves. The Burlington Magazine for Connoiweurs opens with an essay by Prof. C. J. Holmes on ' The Use of Japanese Art to Modern Europe." Little but good can come, Prof. Holmes thinks, to Europeans, with their inborn hold on facts, from the study of the art of the East, with " its suggestiveness, its abstrac- tion, its feeling for space and pigment and colour, and, above all, its never-failing sense of nature as a living organism." A contribution meritorious in itself receives enhanced value from the illustrations. Gabriel Metsu's • Letter Reader' constitutes a fine frontispiece. Part iii. of the ' Life of a Dutch Artist in the Seventeenth Century'maintains the high level of_ interest and value already reached. Plate i. by Van Mieris the elder, showing a hand- some and gallant artist painting a lady, is very effective. 'Some Notes on Mediieval Palermo," article iv. on 'Ecclesiastical Dress in Art,' and a newly discovered ' Altarpiece by Alessio Baldo- vinetti," are all excellent. IN The Fortnightly appears the second and con- cluding portion of Mr. W. L. Courtney's tribute to Christopher Marlowe. The essayist notes many interesting points of resemblance between Marlowe and Shakespeare, and quotes many gracious things said concerning the " dead shepherd" by his contemporaries and successors. To these might conceivably be added the utterances of Thomas Heywood and Thomas Nashe. Mr. Minchin writes on Sir Thomas Browne and his family, supplying many interesting passages from the ' Urn Burial,' the ' Religio Medici,' and other works. We wonder whether it is by accident or design that the name of Coryate appears as Coryot, and that the famous Boaton "Stump" is called "Tump." We do not echo Mr. Findon's ' Plea for the Religious Drama,' nor accept some of the opinions expressed. We read with pleasure Mr. Macdonald's' French Life and the French Stage,' and accompany Miss Harriet Munroe to the pagan festival described as the Snake Dance. —Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford, writes in The Nineteenth^ Century on ' Sir Walter Scott on his "Gabions."' "Gabions" are volumes not prized so much for the value of their contents as because the individual copy is in some respects unique. Ihe paper consists of further extracts from the Keliuuitt Trottcosienses: or, the Gabions of the late Jonathan Oldbuck, Esq..' as Scott called his. catalogue of his Abbotsford antiquities and curio- sities. Some of the books named are neither very rare nor in very good condition. Durfey's ' Wit ani Mirth is thus announced as being in five volumes, instead of six, and being made up from more edi- tions than one, which grievously reduces its value. Scott s comments are, however, always delightful An Eighteenth-Century Episode in Viennese Court Life deals with the Princess Eleonore Liechten- stein, a singularly interesting creature, who, good Catholic as she was, left behind her this significant utterance: " When one sees the bishops, how they think only of money and lands, one must acknowledge that religion is only preserved by a miracle." ' An Indian Retrospect and Some Com- ments, by Ameer AH, C.I.E., deserves close study. 'History in Public Schools,' by C. H. K. Marten, History Master at Eton, also repays study.— Reminiscences of a Diplomatist' begin in The. Comhill They depict life at St. Petersburg near the middle of last century, and may be read with advantage as well as interest. The Rev. W. H Fitchett gives, in ' The Picturesque Side of Trafal- gar, one of his characteristic naval articles, de- scribing with remarkable fidelity and animation the progress of the battle. The same ground is, to a certain extent, covered by Mr. David Hannay in his Napoleon and Nelson,' a well-eonceived paper, dealing with the expression of the Emperor con- cerning his great opponent. Mr. A. G. Bradley writes of 'The Peninsula of Gower,' and gives a striking account of the Culver Hole, one of the most mysterious of places on the English or Welsh coast. 'From a College Window1 (vi.) opens out the question concerning the instinct for admiring beauty. Mr. Shenstone sends part iii. of his ' New Chemistry.'—' Mediaeval Cookery,' in The Gentlf.- '»«« *, .is an interesting subject capably treated, what is said is partly drawn from ' The Forme of Dury,' a fourteenth - century book, first printed by Pegge. Mr. MacMichael's 'Charing Cross,' a Further instalment of which appears, is, we are glad to hear, to be reprinted. In ' A Chat about Snuff' a story often ascribed to Foote is mistold. In ' The Realm of Poetry' the "up-to-date compiler" is credited with spoiling the child's song of " Hey diddle-diddle." The compiler in question is oral repetition. We remember forsixty years the version, now branded as modern.—The last number is issued >f Longman's. For this we are sorry. Apart from Mr. Lang's lucubrations, amusing or erudite, which we have always been glad to hail, the general contributions have been admirably selected. Its disappearance is a sign of the times. Magazines ,hemselves took the place of more solid literature, and are now, in turn, being supplanted by some- ,hing more trivial and ephemeral than themselves, .f we may read and interpret what we see, other non-illustrated magazines will in time follow in the vake, and the field will be left to the reviews and ,he cheap illustrated periodicals which appeal ta the least exigent palates. Salut d'adieit! Our own memory can count many magazines, from Franer ind Douglas Jerrold's, which have anticipated by a ong period the disappearance of Longman x.—la. iddition to fiction, which continues its speciality, The Idler has a good description of Burford ; ' A Scramble on High Mountains,' by E. Elliot Stock ; ".rid ' The Idler's Club.'