Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/480

 398 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io« s. iv. NOV. n, IQOS. Bristol, about the ' History of Redcliffe Church." Thomas Gordon.—There was a Thomas Gordon, a major-general in the Greek army, who published about 1835 a descriptive catalogue of his collection of Greek coins. ALECK ABRAHAMS. 39, Hillmarton Road, N. Du BARTAS (10th S. iv. 348).—Surely the reference is to Marlowe, who translated parts of Ovid. The quotation is aimed straight at Tamburlaine the Great, who is most happily described as being "a lovesick potentate" with a " heroic spirit." WALTER W. SKEAT. NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. Letters to " Ivy " from the First Karl of Dudley. By 8. H. Romilly. (Longmans k Co.) AMONG his many claims upon attention John William Ward, subsequently first Earl of Dudley, is already known as a correspondent. His letters to his tutor, Copleston, afterwards Bishop of Llan- daff, were published in 1840, without adding greatly to the reputation for judgment of the bishop, by whom they were given to the world, or to the consideration of Ward himself. The present corre- spondence—unhappily lop-sided, since the letters of " Ivy " have, unfortunately, perished—shows at his best a singularly interesting, notoriously eccen- tric, and very unfortunate being, whose aberrations are still the subject of discussion in the society of which, in his own time, he was held to be " a bright particular star." To understand the full significance of a work which has been suddenly, though somewhat tardily, sprung upon the world, it is necessary to know the man, a task which might be easily accomplished by means of ordinary books of reference, but for which both time and space are denied us. It is enough for us to say that his position as a man of brilliant capacity was recognized ; that his scholarship was exact and, in its line, unrivalled; that Brougham called him possessor of one of the most acute and vigorous intellects with which a man was ever endowed; that Madame de Stai-1 said he was " the only man in England who really understood the art of con- versation"; that Byron expressed for him both admiration and regard ; that he was the pet aver- sion of Samuel Rogers; and that he had a brief official experience as Foreign Secretary under Can- ning, only to die in enforced confinement with an almost unparalleled reputation for eccentricity. After a neglected childhood, he became, together with Lord Lansdowne, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Ashburton, a resident pupil of Dngald Stewart, the so-styled Scotch philosopher. From Mrs. Stewart, nee Cranstoun, he received exactly the sort of sympathy and encouragement for which his shy, reticent, finely strung nature pined, and with her, who must have been consider- ably his senior, he maintained a correspondence which, through over thirty years of almost total severance, remained warm, friendly, unembarrassed, and delightful. For a while, after his departure to Oxford, he addressed her as his " best and dearest Mama." After a time for that name he substituted " Ivy," by which pleasing appellation he continued to call her until his seclusion for insanity. This charm- ing correspondence, supposed to have perished, bu been recovered and published by Mr. Romilly. It covers a deeply interesting period, ending with the passage of the Reform Bill, and casts a brilliant light upon literature and politics. To estimate iU worth aright calls for a continuous perusal, which we assure our readers will be less of a labour than of a delight. We find it an impossible task, without the quotations which the limits of our space pro- hibit, lodo justice to the book, and can only mention a few points that specially attract us in perusal. Early in the volume are some interesting obaervn- tions on Catherine Maria Fanshawe, the author of " "Twas whispered in heaven," &c., who is described in 1806 as " forty-two years old, very plain, and rather crooked—what Sydney Smith would call a curvilinear old maid." Much that is interesting ii told concerning the Duke of York and the Mrs. Clarke scandal; and an account different from that ordinarily supplied is given of the quatrain concerning Sir Richard Stracnan. the Earl of Chat- ham, and the Walcheren expedition. Under the name Don John Hookham severe things are said of John Hookham Frere when in Spain as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Central Junta, The only really mad utterance seems to be when Ward speaks of drawing a tooth as being, in his own experience, "rather a pleasant thing than other- wise." He once or twice speaks very contemptuously of Oxford, though he subsequently withdraws his utterance and makes amends. Ward is responsible for spreading some scandal, as when he approves of the theory that Horace Walpole was a son of Pope's Lord Hervey. For Bellingbam, the murderer of Perceval, he has some pity, as driven to madness by the brutal despotism of Russia. He shows himself a bad judge of poetry when he speaks of ' Walton,' an anonymous poem, as " evidently Byron's." Other critical utterances are sane, and even judicious. Little is said about' Waverley,' though a good deal about Scott. On the question between Lord ami Lady Byron he has some judicious reflections. Mr. Romilly has discharged his task capably, though we doubt, without being entitled so to do, a note, p. 293, concerning Lintot, whom we believe to have been the publisher, not a " well-known dentist." Four interesting and finely executed illustration* add to the attractiveness of a work of great valo* and interest. Book-Prices Current. VoL XIX. (Stock.) ONE more year will witness a score volumes of this admirably executed annual—in high praise of which we have spoken from the outset—resting on the shelves of those who had the prevision or the senw to subscribe from the beginning. Mr. Slater's tmfk has been well executed from the first, and there i* not one of the nineteen volumes in commendation of which we have not been able to speak. The praaent mentions some remarkable prices, to which the com- piler draws attention. It is open to the cynic*, among whom we are in this instance disposed to rank ourselves, to say that the value of books, as shown in the sales, is derived from their estimation at rarities and curios, or from their meeting the requirements of various fads, rather than froa their literary significance. Under the sole head of