Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/460

 380

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MAY n, 1907.

through. He adds : "A woman was well known to the London police-courts who had for years taken poison, hailed a cab, and then preyed on the benevo- lence of those who had had her rescued and resusci- tated. When at last she did overdose herself, it could be truly said that the poor thing had died by misadventure." There is an interesting statement that criminal women are commonly left-handed. Mr. T. C. Down writes on ' Pirate Trelawny,' having discovered some new letters and documents which concern that remarkable man's behaviour in Greece. Mr. Herbert Paul gossips pleasantly about ' Idle Reading.' The Rev. A. J. Church, an author for forty-six years, in 'Authors and Publishers' declares emphatically that "the charges of rapacity and hard dealing so freely brought against pub- lishers are unjust."

The National Review, after a siimmary of ' Episodes of the Month,' leads off with a poem oy the Laureate, 'The Deeper Note.' The army arid other matters of political moment receive vigorous treatment. Lord Cranworth deals with an important subject in ' Game Preservation in East Africa,' and points out that two animals unaffected by the rinderpest the elephant and the rhinoceros are threatened with extermination since the in- troduction of firearms. He is justified in referring

to " the refining or devastating influence of the

white man." Mr. A. Maurice Low in ' American Affairs ' says that the masses who believe in Mr. Roosevelt are not shaken in their belief by the dis- closures of Mr. Harriman. ' Literary Misfits,' by Mr. W. Hamilton Fyfe, is a discussion of style. His article is an appeal against meaningless pre- ciosity, but overdoes that side of the question, including several statements which cannot be re- garded as " of the centre " by literary critics. Miss Alys Hallard has ' Some Unpublished Notes on Ernest Kenan,' which are attractive, bringing out clearly the fluid state of his beliefs. In this respect Renan's mind resembles a large body of cultivated opinion which has, perhaps, never made itself felt, precisely because it has no firm basis of dogma or conviction.

The Cornhill Magazine has a mixture of dialogue and verse by Mrs. Margaret L. Woods, entitled ' The May Morning and the Old Man.' Mrs. Woods seems to us to owe something in style to Matthew Arnold, and has some pretty lines of her own. Buttercups figure prominently, so evidently the 1st of May is not the season figured. Prof. G. H. Bryan discusses ' The Problem of the Flying Machine,' and insists on the necessity of mathe- matical calculations made by a "stabili meter." Mr. Horace Hutchinson, writing on 'Boys and Birds,' hopes that "the Wild Birds' Protection Act will not rob boyhood of its inducement to the study of the birds and other wild things." Mr. Hartley Withers deals with ' The Rise of Insur- ance,' and we wonder that he does not quote Shakespeare's " putter out of five for one '' (' Tem- pest,' ill. iii.) and explain the usage which it records. 'A Great Darwinian and his Friends,' by Mr. Leonard Huxley, deals with the career of Sir Joseph Hooker, Darwin's closest and oldest friend, and the X Club, which brought some famous men of science together in 1864 and for many years afterwards. Mr. Huxley claims for science more certainty than the new generation allows to it, but it is pleasant to find this tribute to a grand old man of ninety.

The Burlington Magazine, with its offspring The Shilling Burlington, represents admirably the opinions of experts on artistic matters, and the promoters deserve the warmest congratulation on their successful establishment of a magazine which tolerates no idle verbiage or skilful journalese, and may be relied upon to present sound views of art at home, on the Continent, and in the United States. The " consultative committee " who assist Prof. Holmes in the work of editing form a guarantee for scholarly work. The present number leads off with a frontispiece of Chardin's ' Woman with a Frying- Pan,' and also includes illustrations of some fine old silver plate ; 'A Winter's Dawn,' by Mr. Alfred East, in connexion with ' The Case for Modern Painting'; an early Persian bowl acquired last year by the British Museum ; ' London Leaded Steeples ' ; and an equestrian ' Charles I.' by Gainsborough after Van Dyck, from Messrs. Shepherd's gallery. Perhaps, however, the most attractive illustration and article for the ordinary reader concerns ' A Portrait Bust of Agrippina,' just acquired by the British Museum. There are numerous other notes and articles of value ; but instead of going into detail further, we advise all art-lovers to procure a magazine which cannot fail to offer them something attractive.

We must call special attention to the following notices :

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.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication "Duplicate."

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

R. H. THORNTON ("Coke pronounced Cook "). Discussed at 10 S. iii. 430 ; iv. 13, 78. At the last reference is a full reply by PROF. SKEAT.

C., British Guiana ("To Barbadoes"). Carlyle may have taken this verb to use in his ' Cromwell ' from Thurloe's ' State Papers,' iii. 495 (ed. 1742), where W. Gouge is quoted as writing in 1655 : " The prisoners of the Tower shall, 'tis sayd, be Barbadozz'd."

NOTICE.

Editorial communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, B.C.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print, and to this rule we can make no exception.