Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/411

 10 s. vii. APRIL 27, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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black flags, shawls, and other stuffs, only used in cases of burial of great personages is brought into use ; the corpse is then taken out of the house by distant relations and laid therein ; it is carried to a place of ablution, where it is delivered over to the washers. The body is first washed with clear cold water, then rubbed over with lime, salt, and camphor, placed in a winding- sheet, again consigned to the bier, and at length conveyed to the place of burial.

The above is compiled from James Morier's work. ALFRED SYDNEY LEWIS.

Library, Constitutional Club.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

The Semn Deadly Ntn*. By Frederick Rogers.

(A. H. Bullen.)

WE have here a most charming book ; it imparts knowledge not to be found elsewhere except by searching in scores of volumes, many of which are by no means easy to acquire. It cannot be called historical, neither is it a work of imagination. The statements made are, however, true, and put jn a manner so deft that they are sure to cling to the memory in a way that the dull details of an ordinary scientific discourse would inevitably fail to dp. " No presentation of life is complete with- out its sins," the author tells us ; and he depicts the evils by which we are haunted in a manner so clear, and with such dignity of phrase, that we accept without a murmur the way in which our forefathers classified theni, although most people have long been in the habit of regarding the things that are evil from a far different point of view. All this is accomplished in so cautious a manner that the evil instincts which encompass men are never once awakened, and no stain is left on the mind.

Mr. Rogers quotes mediaeval verse freely, the greater part being directly to the point to which these studies have been directed. Nearly the whole of these quotations were written for the purpose of strengthening the moral fibre, and Mr. Rogers generally gives a modern rendering such as will be perfectly intelligible to those who are familiar with the literary language of Shakespere's day.

Every one now knows that our old parish churches, before they were swept away or daubed with white- wash, abounded with pictures intended to promote devotional feelings in those who contemplated them. Among these the seven deadly sins nad a prominent place. Mr. Rogers supplies an account of some of those that remain. To these may be added, from information supplied by the late J. T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A., whose knowledge of the ornaments of the medieval Church was unsurpassed, the fragments of stained glass that remain in one of the windows of Newark Church. He conjectured that before fanaticism or stupidity had done its work, the design was in the form of a wheel, with the "' master fiend" in the centre, and the figures representing the various sins arranged in a ring around him.

The revolt against symbolism and allegory is fast dying out, and it would cause us little surprise if

these old-world pictures should once more be re- produced in modified forms. It is interesting to call to mind that a Puritan such as John Bunyan was the first person of literary influence who re- turned to the old track ; many parts of ' The Pilgrim's Progress ' and ' The Holy War ' might be rendered pictorially in such a manner as ac- curately to reproduce the feelings of the Middle Ages.

The author thinks that we find no mention of the seven deadly sins after the period of the great Civil War. \\ e dare not venture to contradict one who has devoted himself so earnestly to this interesting subject, but would suggest that it is not unlikely that some reference to them may occur in one or more of the devotional books issued by the Non jurors.

The work is adorned by excellent engravings, most of which are copied from De Vos ; but Goltzius and Peter Brueghel also figure therein. Two stately figures of Pride are given. In both instances the richly dressed figure holds a fan of peacock feathers in her hand, and near her stand- what heralds call "a peacock in his pride." Here the bird symbolizes the vice the lady represents, but when embroidered on ecclesiastical vestments it w;as the emblem of immortality. The emble- matical meaning of the peacock was discussed in the last two volumes of our Eighth Series ; while the superstitions connected with its feathers formed the topic of many articles throughout nearly the whole of that series.

Garibaldi'* Defence of the Roman Republic. By

(I. M. Trevelyan. (Longmans Co.) APPROPRIATELY bound in scarlet, this volume de- scribes some of the most stirring incidents in the checquered life of the great Italian patriot. It con- sists of three parts the first dealing with Gari- baldi's early life, his adventures in South America, and the events immediately preceding the fateful May and June of 1849 ; the second recounting the magnificent, but hopeless defence of Rome, under the short-lived republic, against the French forces ; and the third narrating Garibaldi's subsequent retreat and escape. The author lias brought to his task a full and accurate knowledge of his subject, gained not only by reading and digesting every published book dealing with Garibaldi and his times, and checking the statements in these by research in the Italian and French archives, but also by personally visiting the chief places iu Italy where the incidents he describes took place. Italian and other friends have in addition supplied valuable information. The result is a work or the highest importance as an authority as well as of absorbing interest.

Mr. Trevelyan wields a facile pen, and has the gift of word-painting in an exceptional measure : hence the persons who figure in his pages are vivid realities, and not mere stage puppets. Garibaldi himself is portrayed with a masterly touch, his faults and failings being set forth as faithfully as his nobler qualities. Anita, the Brazilian maiden whom Garibaldi so strangely wooed and won, and who for ten years was his faithful wife and com- panion in hardships and perils, after the second chapter disappears almost entirely, but reappears to take part in the memorable retreat, which was to end with her death in the marshes of Ravenna a tragedy the description of which by Mr. Tre- velyan no one can read unmoved. The noble priest