Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/225

 n s. x. SEPT. ii', i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

219

on

A Short History of the Parish of Salehurst, Sussex.

My Leonard J. Hodson. (Published by the

Author, Robertsbridge, Sussex.) THIS volume was .-vidently a labour of love. Sale- h in 1 * 1 parish is chiefly notable through the in- clas'on within its bounds of the little town of Bobertsbridge, where from 1176 to 1538 stood the Ci-teiriaii Abbey, the foundation of the St. Martin family. " Condidit super ilumen Rothori Abba- tiain de Ponte - Roberti," says of the founder the ' Chronicum Claustri Roffensis,' and all the documents relating to the Abbey, as well as a preponderant number of other documents, give the name of the place thus. Mr. Hodson is, we think, right in rejecting the conclusion of Burrell, Hay ley, and some other authorities on Sussex antiquities that the name Robertsbridge is a mere corruption of Rotherbridge. We can imagine Prof. Skeat " girding " at the over-subtle ety- mologists who will not accept an old, well-estab- lished name at its reasonable face value. More over, in the old days when the monks are sup- posed to have made the mistake, the river Rother was commonly known as the Limen or Liminel.

The history of Robertsbridge Abbey has nothing specially interesting about it. What remains of it is largely the record of litigation and of the benefactions bestowed on it, principally, though nt >'>lely, by members of the house of Eu. At the present day, with the exception of some remains built into a farmhouse now occupying part of the site, and the rui s of a building, not to be identified with much certainty, still standing hard by, the monastery has disappeared.

Salehurst Church is here described carefully in detail. The most noteworthy points about it are the construction of the west tower (built within, not as a projection from, the western facade) and the font, which has been taken, some- what doubtfully, to be Norman work, but is, in any case, good, and possesses a striking feature in a chain of salamanders devouring one another, carved at the base of the shaft which supports the cup-shaped basin. The stone used as a pedestal for the credence table is thought to have I'.-, 11 part of one of the altars of the Abbey. It had been used for many years as a doorstep when at length the discovery of the crosses incised upon it revealed what was its original purpose, and it- was thereupon given back by the interim owner to the church. On the north of the main chancel

the Wigsell Chancel, now it seems rather un- fortunately taken up by the organ, but erected originally to be the burial-place and chant ry f"r the Culpeper family. It is sad to think that the building of the present vestry at the restora- tion of the church in 1861-2 was allowed to in- rolve the destruction of the ancient sedilia.

Mr. Hudson gives biographies so far as these

}re to be obtained of all (lie rectors of Salehurst

pom c. 1250, as well as accounts of many of the

' ci.T_y. The Parish Records have

Afforded him matter for a very interesting

and the chapter on ' Some Ancient

and Families ' may also be mentioned.

iliil \ve should have liked a map, and


 * h ps some IK it es. concerning the geology

'i 1 the general character of the scenery, there

seem few or no critical objections to make to this unpretentious, but careful contribution to the now numerous local histories of England.

The Library : July. (De La More Press, 3s. 6d.

net.)

IN 'An Early Appreciation of Blake,' Mr. K. A. Esdaile maintains that " as a pioneer in Blake criticism Crabb Robinson has never received his due : Gilchrist resents his suggestion that Blake was not entirely sane, others have repeated the reproach ; and no man has thought to clear his memory in that respect by reprinting that for- gotten paper which he wrote in the winter of 180910 to introduce Blake to the notice of German students a paper based on a first-hand study of all the pictures, poems, and engravings on which he could lay his hands, and on such personal information as he could glean from friends. He did not meet the poet-painter until many years later, so that his narrative, by far the earliest long account of Blake and his work, is uncoloured by personal feeling."

Mr. A. Cecil Piper contributes notes on the introduction of printing into Sussex, \vith a chronology ; Miss Elizabeth Lee has her usual account of ' Recent Foreign Literature ' ; and Mr. W. W. Greg discusses ' Problems of the English Miracle Cycles.' ' Co-operation among German Libraries by Mutual Loans and the Information Bureau,' by Mr. Ernst Crous, furnishes an illus- tration of the advantages of the system in the case of a Berlin undergraduate who had to write a thesis on the war of the Cevennes. Besides other works, he wanted ten books no copies of which were in the Berlin libraries. By the aid of the Auskunftsbureau and the inter-library loan service, he obtained the ten books within four weeks from nine different places and ten different libraries. The number of volumes lent from the Berlin Royal Library in 1912-13 amounted to 55,663.

Among the remaining articles is one by Mr. Alfred W. Pollard entitled ' On Getting to Work.'

Congregational Historical Society Transactions .-

Augv.Kt. (3s. 6d. net to non-members.) PERHAPS the paper of chief interest in this number is that by Principal Alex. Gordon on Calamy as a biographer. " His first experiment in biographical work was in connection with the autobiographical ' Reliquiae ' (1696) of Richard Baxter (1615-91). This, though he withheld his name, he furnished with a Contents-table and an Index " ; but, Prin- cipal Gordon adds, " he did not redeem it from its far too numerous misprints." In 1702 he camc- prominently before the public with an ' Abridg- ment ' of Baxter's Autobiography, continuing the story till Baxter's death. Of Baxter he said : " He talked in the pulpit with great freedom about another world, like one that had been there, or was come as a sort of an express from thence to make a report concerning it."

Among other papers are ' Samuel Smith of Stan- nington,' by T. G. ('., and ' Kinsfolk of Robert Browne in Cambridgeshire,' bv the Rev. A. C. Yorke.

We are glad to see that it is proposed to hold an Historical Exhibition. A Committee has been formed to ascertain what suitable objects of historical interest exist in various parts of the country.