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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. AMUL 21, IOOG.

entertainments, troops of actresses virtually dis pensing with clothing. From the ranks of such the Empress Theodora herself is taken.

lu the second chapter the Roman Empire under Anastasius a period which Gibbon glides over is discussed, as 'The Inheritance of Justinian,' in its aspects political, educational, and religious. The historical treatment begins in chap. iii. with the birth and fortunes of the elder Justin and the origins of Justinian ; while the fourth chapter narrates the early career of Theodora. The autho rity for this is Procopius, whose ' Secret History, the subject of constant attack, is now, by the researches of Dahn and Haury, established. That the work of Procopius is vitiated, like most his- tory, by prejudice, ignorance, and mistake maybe conceded. The authorship of the 'Arcana,' strongly disputed, was, however, granted by Montesquieu and Gibbon, and is, as we have said, established by modern investigations. The account of the early life of the empress coincides pretty closely, accord- ingly, with that of Gibbon, and the most striking instances of her impudicity have occasionally, in the later account as in the earlier, to be left in the decent obscurity of a learned language. We leave Mr. Holmes at the outset of the more arduous portion of his work, ^yhat is done is, however, of signal value and authority, and we know few works from which the scholar can derive a more truthful and vivacious picture of a deeply interesting and important epoch.

Records of the Committees for compounding, <(<'., with Delinquent Royalists in Durham and North- umberland, 1643-00. (Surtees Society.) THIS compilation, made by our friend Mr. Richard Welford, M.A., for the Surtees Society, is in its way a model, and may count as one of the most important among the Society's recent publications. Materials for its construction are fortunately abundant. These are found in the Public Record Office in London and in the Cathedral Library in Durham. The MS. in the latter repository con- stitutes but a fragment; those at the Public Record Office extend to some three hundred volumes, two calendars of the contents of which have been issued under the editorship of Mrs. Everett Green. Com- piled from these, the present volume comprises the whole of the MS. at Durham, which appears to be "a contemporary transcript of original records relating to sequestrations in the county of Durham by Sir VVilliam Armyne and other Parliamentary Commissioners, who held courts of confiscation in various parts of the county during the years 1644 and 1645." In the case of the London collections, extracts are made from so much as relates to the counties of Durham and Northumberland in the correspondence which passed between the authori- ties in London and the Commissioners for Seques- trations in the said counties. The largest and the most important part consists of an alphabetical list of ' Sequestrations and Compositions,' arranged under the name of the compounder, with a selec- tion and co-ordination of such documents as are in any sense illuminatory concerning the delinquent, the extent of his estate, and the nature of the penalty. An appendix supplies "The Seques- tration Ordinance, the Solemn League and Covenant, the National Oath, the Oath of Abjuration, and the Form of Pardon granted to delinquents after they had purged their offences." The value of these things, both historically and

genealogically, is at once apparent ; and the whole, which is admirably indexed, constitutes an all- important contribution to our knowledge of the two great border counties. The names in the list of delinquents include those most renowned in history and in ballad literature. How interesting are the notes supplied by Mr. Welford may be seen by references to names such as Lilburn, Sir John Mennes, Widdrington of Widdrington, Sir William Fenwick of Meldon, Sir Francis and Henry Liddell, Mark Shafto of Newcastle, and Henry Lambton of Lambton. In few previous publications has the aim of the Society been more loyally and more successfully carried out.

Dod's Parliamentary Companion, (Whittaker &

Co.)

THE eighty-second issue of this indispensable and trustworthy little guide to both houses has appeared and is up to date, the very latest changes which occurred being communicated in an appendix.

The Lyrical Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.Pippa

Passes. By Robert Browning. (Heinemann.) WITH in each case a portrait of the author and an introduction by Mr. Arthur Symons, these works are added to the pretty and marvellously cheap "Favourite Classics" of Mr. Heinemann, to the attractions of which they contribute.

Northern Notes and Queries: a Quarterly Magazine devoted to the Antiquities of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham,. Edited by Henry Reginald Leighton. (Newcastle-upon- Tyne, M. S. Dodds.)

WE welcome the first number of a namesake of our own, the work of which will be restricted to the four Northern counties. If the part before us may be accepted as a type of what is to Follow, we anticipate deriving much pleasure from its pages. It is well edited, and ought soon to acquire a wide circulation. We know from ex- perience that it is always unsafe to prophesy, but as the borderland of England has always manifested notwithstanding its many acts of vandalism a desire to understand and to preserve the remains of the past in far larger measure than some other parts of the island, we may hope that our anticipa- tions will not be left unfulfilled.

A series of extracts from the family notices oc- 3iirring in the Newcastle Weekly Courant has been begun. We hope it will be continued until the oeginning of the last century, when the paper, it would seem, was discontinued. One entry is most nteresting. It records the death of the widow of ihat Earl of Derwentwater who suffered on Tower Hill for the part he took in the endeavour to restore .he line of Stuart in 1715. She passed away afc Brussels on 19 August, 17-3, aged about thirty, and was buried in the church of the English Canonesses of Louvain. Her death was occasioned by small- pox. We should like to know if there exists any nscription to her memory.

The Rev. James Wilson contributes a learned laper on clerical celibacy in the diocese of Carlisle, it is his opinion that there are grave doubts whether ,his restriction was at any time rigidly enforced in Jiis Northern diocese, though it is of course certain ages contrary to the law of the mediaeval Church.
 * hat a violation of priestly celibacy had been for

In a notice of the parish registers of Berwick- ipon-Tweed we have a list of some strange bap-

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