Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/625

 10 s. vm. DEC. 28, loo:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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JHisallanmts.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Napoleon and the In ration of England. By H. F. B.

\\heelerandA.M.Broadley. 2 vols. (Lane.) A MOST agreeable way of learning modern history for the ordinary man is by means of caricatures, medals, and other pictorial illustrations. Unfor- tunately, few men have the leisure or the money to secure a collection of such things, which grow increasingly rare. We are, then, doubly grateful to Mr. Lane, who has lately taken a special interest in the personal and pictorial side of English history and biography, for these two elaborate volumes. Napoleon never reached England, as everybody knows, but the sub-title of this book, ' The Story of the Great Terror,' fairly indicates the feelings which his plan aroused, and good judges of history have considered that England was never in such peril as when his descent on our shores was threatened. This will account for, and perhaps excuse, the obvious unfairness of some of the verbal and pictorial attacks made on the "Corsican ogre." There is an admirable French work on the subject, disfigured, however, by the errors which often indi- cate to us the incapability of the French " proof- reader"; but English treatment of it has been so far fragmentary. We have now before us a thoroughly competent account of the plans for national defence ; the part played by George III. and his advisers ; the projects of the invaders ; the inventions of Fulton, whose first complete steam- boat was luckily, perhaps, for England not in order till 1807 ; and lastly, the literary and artistic records of the times. Nothing can exceed the zeal and industry with which these have been gathered and laid before us in these pages. The illustrations are many of them of great rarity, and " committed to faithful eyes," as Horace says, will make an indelible impression, even on minds innocent of historicity. The most celebrated is probably the invasion medal prepared in Paris, and engraved in advance with the words " Struck in London, 1804." It is artistically a notable piece of work, in which Napoleon's fine head appears to advantage. A good many pictures concern the volunteers who rose so splendidly in their country's support. They are represented as handsome heroes oy Gillray, whom we usually associate with hideous caricatures. One great merit of these volumes is that they afford a monument to local patriotism M'hich might other- wise be forgotten. Most of us have heard of Pitt, but few of William Morton Pitt, M.P. for Dorset (1754-1836), a model country gentleman, who pub- lished 'Thoughts on the Defence of these King- doms.'

The caricatures, which offer a very wide field of interest, show a John Bull different from that established during the last forty years. The picture inserted between pp. 108 and 109, vol. i., presents a type of Englishman which is not at all attractive, out more common to-day than the burly farmer who figures as John Bull. The verse of the time, Pye being Laureate, is not dis- tinguished, but some of the local songs are toler able. The book would afford admirable material, we should think, for a novelist who wished to make himself master of the period and of those little touches which add verisimilitude.

The wonderful show of pictures is, we believe,

due mostly to the collection of Mr. Broadley, and we view this book with satisfaction as publishing such a collection, or, at any rate, making the best of it available in a permanent form. Ihe results of private enterprise in gatherings of books and pictures are so often dissipated that any move in the direction of catalogues or reproductions is to- be strongly commended. The writers include an interesting discussion, based on various authorities,, as to whether Napoleon really intended to invade- England ; and we think they show satisfactorily that the preparations at Boulogne were not a mere- blind, and cloak for other plans.

Throughout we get a good idea of the competence of George III., whose correspondence is both digni- fied and apt to the occasion. Side-lights are thrown on the careers of Fox, Pitt, and other notable- people. From the historical point of view the two' volumes are very readable, and edited with a care- ful eye to further testimonies of importance, which are duly quoted at the bottom of the page.

Folk-lore of the Holy Land, Modern, Christian, and'

Jewish. By J. E. Hauauer. (Duckworth & Co.) THIS interesting gathering of popular beliefs is edited by Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall, who tells us- in his preface that although the compilation "is- but as a pailful from the sea, as compared with the floating mass of folk-lore in Palestine," he knows of no other attempt at collection on anything like so- large a scale. All the traditions, and theories as to- the meaning of things, gathered in the volume will be- useful to the folk-lorist : many because they reveal the mental differences between the Western Asiatic and the Northern European, and several because they are variants of ideas or folk-tales generally current in Great Britain, France, and Germany. At p. 20, for instance, we find a parallel to theconviction that illness may be caused by a frog, or- newt, which has been accidentally swallowed. At p. 48 is a variant of the now well-known " Butterfly which stamped " ; and at p. 88 we come on an> Eastern form of an episode in Hans Andersen's ' Little Klaus and Big Klaus ' that in which Little- Klaus appears with the sea-cattle. In the story of Francesco and Azrael the former takes the part usually given to a blacksmith in European legend,, while the Angel of Death fills the role of the Devil.

It is curious to discover that the story of the woman who was carried away to act as midwife at a pixie lying-in is current in the Holy Land. According to the Eastern version, the woman is given a kohl-vessel that she may anoint the eyes of the baby jan whom she has assisted into the world, "and when she had applied it to the little one's eyes she took the bodsin and put some on one ofc her own," before the vessel was snatched from her.. Thus anointed, she had the power of seeing the jani until her eye was poked out in circumstances similar to those in the story known in different parts of Europe.

A local version of Bluebeard and another of Cinderella are given ; while the " Es Sanawlnah," mentioned on p. 106, seem to be near kinsmen of our old acquaintances the wise men of Gotham.

As in Europe, several of the satirical tales are aimed at Churchmen. St. Peter, the gate-keeper of heaven, explains to a good woman on one occasion, " There are hundreds of saints like you, thank God. admitted every day, but only once in a thousand years do we get a Patriarch. In another story a monk tells hia abbot that he has been tempted to-