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NOTES AND QUERIES. [HP s. v. MAY 12, 1906.

The substance of the article was delivered as a lecture before the Society of Arts. Very romantic, and no less satisfactory, is the story Mr. Yates "Thompson relates. Part IV. appears of Sir Richard R. Holmes's ' English Miniature Painting,' dealing with Peter Oliver and John Hoskins.

MRS. HUGH FRASER opens out The Fortnightly with an interesting paper on the Emperor of Japan. What is the authority whence the particulars she supplies are drawn we know not, but what is said is probable enough. Mr. H. K. Samuel sends some thoughtful and valuable comments on Heinrich Heine. Mr. H. B. Irving supplies the first of two lectures on ' The English Stage in the Eighteenth Century.' 'Mr. J. M. Barrie's Dramatic and Social Influence' is contributed by Edith A. Browne. Mr. Julius M. Price finds in the Paris Ecole des Beaux- Arts 'The Cradle of Modern British Art.' As Part J. of 'The Divine and the Human,' by Leo Tolstoi, describes the execution of the hero, it is difficult to see what is reserved for the second part. Before this is characteristically put "No rights reserved." ' The Negro Problem Stated ' presents a hopeless condition of affairs.

IN The Nineteenth Century Mr. Sidney Lee takes what may be considered sanguine views as to ' The ^Future of Shakespearean Research.' A record of recent and appetizing discovery is comprised in this. An interesting sociological subject is dis- cussed in 'Eugenics and St. Valentine.' The first word, it may be said, signifies " the science and art of being well born." Indirectly connected with the subject is ' The Physique of Girls,' which is dis- cussed by Miss K. Bathurst. There is, as Mr. Norman Pearson shows, a lighter side to Hannah More. Sir Martin Conway writes on ' The Indi- vidual versus the Crowd,' and Mr. D. C. Banks on ' The Vocation of the Journalist.'

AN important article in The National consists of Opt. A. T. Mahan, the famous author of 'The Influence of Sea Power upon History.' With this AS a corrective should be read Major F. B. Baden- Powell's ' The Advent of the Flying-Machine.' Sir Rowland Blennerhassett has a noticeable paper on ' The Genius of Italian Unity.' Sufficiently terrible is what is said on ' Russia on the Rubicon's Banks.' Very striking is Mr. Reginald Lucas's ' The Value of a Public-School Education.' ' Colloquies in a Suburban Garden' maintains its interest. Miss Eveline Godley's ' A Century of Children's Books ' is a piece of sound criticism.
 * Some Reflections upon the Far Eastern War,' by

IN The Cornhill ' The Spring Call ' is a charac- teristic variant by Mr. Thomas Hardy of the song of the blackbird. Mr. Walter Frith's ' A Talk with my Father, ^Statis suse LXXXVIII,' shows the veteran Royal Academician in a very vivacious mood. * Prehistoric Man on the Downs ' is the subject of an erudite contribution by Messrs. Arthur John and George Hubbard. Mr. Claude E. Benson writes on ' Venomous Serpents.' The most danger- ous of these appears to be the African niamba, which flies at everything and everybody, and will "even come down from a tree to solicit an inter- view." Then there is in India the hamadryad, which has been known to chase for his life a man on horse- back. Against these it is pleasant to oppose the one American cobra, the coral snake, which is "very highly specialized, very beautiful, very venomous, and very amiable [!], so much so that it

might almost be admitted as a plaything to the nursery, and is, in fact, often used as such by the Brazilian girls." 'Chimsera and Phaselia ' is plea- santly suggestive.

In The Gentleman's appears Part II. of 'The Pepysian Treasures,' a valuable contribution to be further continued. ' A Lost Art,' that of memory, is illustrated from Southey's 4 Doctor.' ' The Voyage of the Cygnet' is an animated account of buccaneer proceedings. A valuable paper deals with 'The Rise and Growth of the Memoir in England.' The first appearance of this in a rude shape in England was in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The miscellaneous contents are of high interest. "

IN a new cover The Idler has many a ttracti ve travel articles. * The Land of Good Cooking ' deals with Saint Remy, in Provence, an interesting spot sixteen kilometres from Tarascon. Following this comes a delightful account of Holland as ' The Land of Windmills,' many of which picturesque edifices are reproduced. Mr. Eden Phillpotts's * Intervention ' has its scene in Algiers.

A WORK entitled ' The King's English ' is about to be published by the Oxford University Press. It is said that English writers seldom look into a grammar or book of composition, so the compilers have passed by all rules, of whatever absolute im- portance, that are shown by observation to be seldom or never broken, and have illustrated by examples, with the name of a reputable authority attached to each, all blunders that observation shows to be common. The book deals with ques- tions of vocabulary, syntax, "airs and graces," punctuation, euphony, quotation, grammar, mean- ing, ambiguity, and style, and has a full index.

10

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ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

M.A.OxoN. For "Onwhyn" see 'D.N.B.,' xlii. We cannot undertake to state the value of books. " Respectability" is given in Annandale's ' Imperial* and the 'Encyclopaedic' dictionaries. The quota- tions are from Carlyle and The Spectator of 1885. Information will probably be shortly available in the'N.KD.'

MEDICULUS. "Toast." See Brewer's 'Phrase and Fable.'" City of the Violet Crown." See our own columns, 9 th S. xi. 108, 295, 433.

CORRIGENDA. Ante, p. 324, col. 2, 11. 15 and 25 From foot, for "Thompson" read Thomson. L. 24 from foot, " the late thirties," omit "late."

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