Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/212

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.x. SEPT. 12,1914.

no three - volume French edition listed in

Qu6rard, but in the Bibliotheque Rationale I

find the following :

" M6moires du Baron de Tott, sur les Turcs et les Tartares. Premier [sic] Partie. [Vignette.] A Amsterdam. M.DCC.LXXXIV." Octavo. I., 1 p.L+2 [title] +v-lvi + 1-274; II., 1 p.l.+2 ttitle] +5-301 ; III., 1 p.l.+2 [title] 5-252 pp. There was another translation, besides

Holcroft's, the same year :

" Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, on the Turks and the Tartars. Translated from the French by an English gentleman at Paris, under the imme- diate inspection of the Baron. London : Printed and sold by J. Jarvis, at No. 283, Strand ; and also by J. Debrett, opposite Burlington-house, Piccadilly ; T. Becket, Pail- Mall, and J. Sewell, Cornhill." In two octavo volumes.

The Preface to this translation, of which I have seen the first volume only, is dated " Paris, 16 March, 1785," and the British Museum Catalogue (1053. K. 11) dates it 1785. I have found some reviews of the work among the magazines of that year. The English Review, August, 1785 (6: 89, 171), takes up both translations in the same article. There is a notice of " Memoirs of Baron de Tott on the Turks and Tartars. 2 vols. Svo. 12s." in The Universal Magazine for April, 1785 (76: 222), which does not give the name of the publisher, but I should judge by the phrasing of the title that it refers to the Jarvis publication. Then, too, since the Robinsons issued The Town and Country Magazine, can we not assume that their June notice of their own book would be as early as any, and that they neglected to notice the rival publication ? There is a review in The European Magazine. April, 1785 (7: 277), quite obviously referring to the Jarvis imprint. Since Holcroft was not in Paris in March, 1785, and since I have not caught him in a lie yet, I have no hesita- tion in saying that the translation is not his work. We must therefore admit the note on this item in the Waller-Glover edition of the ' Memoirs ' to be in error, for it points very clearly to this Jarvis book. The 4 Memoirs ' (p. 107) tell us that Holcroft did such a translation ; and since most of the books which he brought from Paris in 1783 with the De Tott volume were issued by the Robinsons, I have small hesitation in giving him the translation which was reviewed in The Town and Country Magazine for June, 1785 (17: 309).

A new impression was required the follow- ing year :

" Memoirs of Baron de Tott, containing the state of the Turkish Empire and the Crimea, during t:e late war with Russia. With numerous

anecdotes, facts, and observations, on the

manners and customs of the Turks and Tartars.

The second Edition. To which are subjoined,

the Strictures of Monsieur de Peyssonnel.

Translated from the French. In TAYO Volumes.

Vol. I. London: Printed for G. G. J. and J.

Robinson, Pater-noster-Row. MnccLXXXvi."

Octavo. I., xiv + xxxvi + 1-238 +2 + 1-236 ;

II., 2 + 1-204 + 1-287 + 19 [index] pp.

It is probably this book which I find listed (' Catalogue of Books, of Thomas

Holcroft Sold Tuesday, Oct. 1 7,

1809 ') in the item,

" 184. Memoirs of Baron de Tott. 1786."

The above is in the British Museum (10,075. e. 26. ). It was reviewed in The Town and Country Magazine for October, 1786 (18: 543). An importation by Elmsly of the new French form, with the Peyssonnel material, had been noticed in The New Review nearly a year earlier (November, 1785 ; 8: 354).

In the December, 1786, number of The Town and Country Magazine (18: 646) ap- peared a review of the book called " Appendix to the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott ;

containing an answer [by M. Russin] to the

remarks of M. Peyssonnel, an Historical Memoir

concerning the Druses, a people inhabiting

Mount Lebanon. Robinsons."

There is probability that Holeroft con- tinued his work for the Robinsons, and trans- lated this also ; but I have found no further reference to this Appendix, and have located no copy, so can make nc- statement beyond the mere suggestion.

1786. " Letters on Egypt, with a Parallel between the Manners of its ancient and modern In- habitants, the present State, the Commerce, the Agriculture, and Government of that Country ; and an Account of the Descent of St. Lewis at Damietta : Extracted from Join- ville and Arabian Authors. Illustrated with Maps. By Mr. Savary, Author of the Life of Mahomet, and Translator of the Coran. In two Volumes. Svo. G. G. J. and J. Robin- son. London. 1786."

I have copied the above just as it stands in The European Magazine for January, 1787 (11: 26). The work was noticed in The Town and Country Magazine for December, 1786 (18: 646), and The Universal Maga- zine for November, 1786 (79: 279). It was taken from ' Lettres sur 1'Egypte,' &c. (Paris, 1785, 3 vols. in Svo), by Claude Etienne Savary (1750-88). (Cf. Querard, 8: 492, and Larousse, 14, 1: 285.)

There was an edition, which I have seen, as follows :

" Lettres sur 1'Egypte, Ou Ton offre le parallele des mceurs anciennes & modernes de ses habitans ; oil 1'on decrit 1'etat, le commerce, I'agriculture.le gouvernement.l'ancienne religion