Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/466

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. X. DEC. 5, 1914.

pulled down. Failing to get his consent to its demolition the architect took away the rest of the gallery, leaving the pew like a cage on four legs, with a ladder staircase, up which the chief man's daughter climbed every Sunday morning when she came to service.

Mr. L. J. Acton Pile continues the list of Feet of Fines for Berkshire, and Mr. Tudor Sherwood his transcriptions of early Berkshire wills.

The Fortnightly Review for December is a good -one. Dr. Chatterton - Hill's paper on ' Paul Claudel ' deserves the attention of all those among us who are interested in the French literature of to-day. Claudel has as yet been but little dis- cussed in England, though his name crops up from time to time ; but his genius, if it appeals not very widely even among his own countrymen, appeals surely and profoundly, and Dr. Chatterton- Hill has, in our opinion, by no means made too much of it. Mr. Holford Knight writes on Lord Alverstone's ' Recollections ' a paper which brings out well the main good things in the book. Except for Mr. James Davenport Whelpley's article on ' The American Elections,' the rest of the number is devoted to aspects of the war. Mr. Wilfrid Ward's ' The War Spirit and Chris- tianity ' is sure to be welcomed by a large number of readers, for it gives form and words to reflec- tions which must be, inchoate perhaps, in many minds, and reinforces wisdom, verbally at least very familiar, by several suggestive remarks. The place of honour is given to Mr. Sidney Whit- man's ' Blight of Prussian Aristocracy.' Both the writer and the informants he quotes are able to speak from first-hand observation. That part of the article which deals directly with the Kaiser emphasizes the unfortunate effect upon him of his education, and in particular of his time as a student at Bonn. King Edward, embittered during the last days of his life by the Kaiser's un- mannerliness, is said to have remarked of him that there would be trouble with him, for he was not a gentleman. Mr. J. B. C. Kershaw writes on ' The Effect of Warfare upon Commerce and Industry,' Mr. J. B. Firth on ' War and Finance,' and Mr. Archibald Hurd on ' The Submarine in War ' three excellent papers worth careful study. The Eastern Question is dealt with by Mr. Arthur E. P. B. Weigall and Mr. J. Ellis Barker in papers on Germany, Turkey, and Egypt, and by Nautilus in a paper on the German naval plot in the Mediterranean.

THE December Cornhill Magazine is a some- what unequal number. To begin with what we liked least; Admiral Sir F. H. Seymour's ' Naval Warfare of To-day ' consists of a string of chatty, pleasant paragraphs very unequal to the subject he is supposed to be dealing with. ' Escapes,' by Mr. A. C. Benson, is one of those meanderings in meditation in which he so unremittingly allows himself, and though it has two or three wise words in it, we thought it, as a whole, jejune. Then there is a story called ' The Woman ' which seemed to us hardly worth while. On the other hand, Katharine Tynan has a charmingly written and quite unusual story called ' Martha,' about a hen ; there is one of Mr. Hesketh Prich- ard's delightful essays (mingling the sportsman and the naturalist) entitled ' With Widgeon and Mallard ' ; and a weird sketch, ' Concerning Snakes,' by Mr. Shetland Bradley. Dr. Squire

Sprigge, in ' On Unbending over a Novel.' gives some very good advice as to recreation the kind of book which truly constitutes this, and the way to read it. Mr. Frank Mulgrew in ' A Real Dotheboys Hall ' describes the life of boys at Eden Hall in Yorkshire, where one Aislabie kept the school in question, the details about which are drawn from the ' Life of Sir Joshua Walmsley." The resemblances between Aislabie's ways and those of the renowned Squeers are certainly striking, and it is curious that this school also included a Smike. The war is represented by two very interesting articles of non-technical merit: Mr. Robert C. Witt's account of a visit to ' The Battlefield between the Marne and the Aisne,' and Lady Charnwood's story of prepara- tions for receiving Belgian refugees in ' Our City and the War.'

WE found the new Nineteenth Century one of the best numbers we have recently seen. It deals effectively, and also readably, with many aspects of the war : but it affords also abundant relief in the way of articles dealing with other subjects. One hardly knows whether to reckon among these a set of lively letters describing, from a woman's point of view, events at Paris and Soissons in 1814, communicated by Lady Kinloch-Cooke. They derive no small part of their undeniable interest from the resemblances and differences between the present situation and what they depict. ' The Case of Dr. Axhani,' set out with some justifiable heat by Mr. J. L. Walton, will, we hope, find careful readers. Not only does it draw attention to an instance of grievous hardship and injustice, but it opens up a question which needs more candid treatment than it has yet y received as to the position and claims upon its members of the -medical profession. Mr. S. G. Dunn has a thoughtful paper entitled ' Some? Considerations on the Self,' expressing his views on the enterprise of trying to draw India within the pale of our Western schemes of religion. Those who do not agree with him will still find him suggestive. Mr. H. M. Wallis in ' A Natural- ist in North Africa ' has a fascinating subject in which he shows how well he is at home. The moral and ideal aspects of the war are those which this review chiefly discusses, no fewer than seven '] of the papers being on these lines, including essays from the pens of Sir Thomas Barclay, Sir Bamp- fylde Fuller, Sir Harry Johnston, the Bishop of Carlisle, Bishop Frodsham, and Mr. W. H. Mallock. They are, as one would expect, different utter- ances of what is practically the same spirit and will common to the majority of British men and women. We may also mention Col. Keene's eager appreciation of Lord Roberts, and an article by Mr. William Blane on Tsingtau.

to (tottsponfonts.

M. S. ' A Child's Caul ' has been discussed a good deal in ' N. <fc Q.' Many of the correspon- dents bring forward instances of a belief cm-rent among nurses that the caul preserves from drown- ing. (See 9 S. iii. 26, 77, 175, 295, 408, 191.) Brand's ' Popular Antiquities ' (Bohn's edition, vol. iii. pp. 114-19) might be consulted.

CoRRioEXDfM. Jane Austen lived at 4, Sydney Terrace not 24, as stated ante, p. 430, col. 1.