Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/99

 10th S. IV. JULY 22, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 79

diligence all the compliments, delicate and coarse, which she heard wherever she turned, she recorded them for the eyes of two or three persons who had loved her from infancy, who had loved her in obscurity, and to whom her fame gave the purest and most exquisite delight. Nothing can be more unjust than to confound these outpourings of a kind heart, sure of perfect sympathy, with the egotism of a blue-stocking, who prates to all who come near her about her own novel or her own volume of sonnets."

In no part of the diary is the interest keener or more sustained than in the part describing her adventures in France, especially during the "hundred days." We know no other work which gives us a picture of life in Paris so accurate and so easily realized. In the account of the escape into Belgium we are almost as much moved as if we were reading the adventures of D'Artagnan on the way to Dover or the flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes. We positively thrill with emotion. A similar impression is conveyed on the eve and during the progress of the Battle of Waterloo. As we read of the constant preparations for escape to Antwerp and of the quick succession of rumours, generally indicating the immediate arrival of Bonaparte, we seem to be in Brussels, and almost participate in the fears and tremors. A measure of the same verisimilitude is experienced when, in a subsequent chapter we read the narrative of an escape from drowning at Capstone, Ilfracombe. This incident is possibly coloured by the imagination of the author, but is, at any rate, a good piece of literary style. Those with whom, during the time of the present instalment, Fanny is associated are the most distinguished men of the day, and her pictures of them are admirably living. We could, did space permit, expatiate on this charming book. We must content ourselves with saying that we have read the work through with constantly augmenting pleasure, and promise ourselves a speedy reperusal. Mr. Dobson's task has been admirably accomplished, and is, indeed, a piece of work of which to be proud. We have tested the value of his notes on points on which we have special knowledge, and find neither mistake nor important omission. The portraits in the present volume consist of Frances Anne Greville (Mrs. Crewe), Charles Burney, Chateaubriand, and Madame de Staël. There are also facsimiles, a map of Brussels, and many views of interest.

The Gentleman's Magazine Library. Edited by George Laurence Gomme.-English Topography. Part XV. London, Vol. I. (Stock.)

THIS the first volume of Mr. Gomme's collections from The Gentleman's Magazine, so far as London is concerned, is of extraordinary interest. We have been vain enough to regard ourselves as well posted up in the historical facts which have found record from time to time in the pages of "Sylvanus Urban," but must confess that Mr. Gomme's knowledge far exceeds any to which we can advance a just claim. He has, we are confident, unearted several important matters of which many of our readers have hitherto been in complete ignorance. London has been from the days of the Stuarts, and we believe, far earlier, a vague term. Mr. Gomme, however, does not leave us in any doubt as to what he means by it. He includes in the volume before us, and its successors which will soon appear, the whole of the area now under the jurisdiction of the London County Council. We can imagine that his plan may be called in question, for much that is included is very far outside the boundaries of even the greater London as it was spoken of by our fathers. We feel, however, quite sure that no other plan could have been devised which would not have lead to dire confusion. A studious person, some day or other, will undertake the task of compiling a history of the growth of the largest city in the world. Whosoever finds himself engaged on such a work cannot fail to realize how much he has been helped forward by Mr. Gomme's labour. One thing, nevertheless, is at present wanting, which we sincerely hope may be supplied in the last volume of the series. What we call for is a sketch map which will show the parts of the new London which have been cut off from the neighbouring shires. This really is a necessity, for as time goes on there can be little doubt that further additions must be made to the London County Council area. Now they are treated of in the shires to which they historically belong; but endless confusion will arise hereafter, as no one in the far future will call to mind the present London boundaries, or find it easy to inform himself except by the aid of such a map as we suggest.

The papers headed 'The London Theatres' will have a much wider interest than many of the others. Much of the volume appeals mainly to the historical student and the antiquary; but here we have something for many sections of the community. The theatres, as ought to be well known by everyone, were suppressed by the Puritans, and many people think that in the earlier years of the reign of Charles II. there were but few of them, though as time went on they continued to increase in number. There were certainly many in the latter years of the seventeenth century, and it has been affirmed that in the Georgian time they had grown so rapidly as to be beyond the wants of the population. There is, perhaps, some measure of truth in this, but it has often become the subject of wild exaggeration. It has been said that the spread of the movement of Wesley and Whitefield lessened the number of playgoers, but that it did so to any appreciable extent is very doubtful. The pages of some of the periodicals devoted to the discussion of religious topics, such as The Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, which began under another name in 1784, and its Evangelical contemporary, which came into existence in 1793, would lead us to think so; but the newspapers and other periodicals of the day cause us to draw a far different conclusion. Englishmen, though their taste in such matters has differed widely from that of most continental peoples, have always loved the theatre, and from letters we have read written by occasional visitors to the town in the eighteenth century, we cannot but conclude that "country cousins," unless their stay was very long, usually went to the theatre four or five times every week.

Persons who are not apt in contemporary chronology may easily forget that the first railway constructed in London was the London and Greenwich, the opening of which took place on 14 December, 1837. The day was made a festival, which was attended by the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, Aldermen, and several foreign ministers. Five trains started conveying 1,500 passengers, and after the return journey upwards of 400 ladies and gentlemen had luncheon at the Bridge House Tavern in Southwark. It is not as yet fully sixty-eight years ago.