Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/85

 ii s.x. JULY 25, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

because most direct, pliant, and generally service- a tjl e instrument of administration. Had he roiTied longer, or been succeeded by a monarch of equal personal force, the officers of the house- hold, under royal superintendence, might have overborne the activity of the other administra- tive bodies, and reduced the affairs of the nation to a department of the affairs of the Court. Edward II., however, if he had the doggedness requisite to postpone indefinitely compliance with the ordinances issued by the Committee of Ordainers, had neither the firmness nor the wit to surround himself with a body of servants capable of ensuring the supremacy of the Court, and still less his father's capacity for the skilful and indiscriminate use of men good, bad, and indifferent as tools for his ends.

Prof. Tout is inclined to think that the signifi- cance of this reign as a turning-point in ad- ministrative history may be extended to cover more than the modifications it produced in the position of the royal household. A good deal of work requires to be done before his reading of the period can be established ; but whether or no his theory is found to have permanent value in itself, it cannot fail to prove useful as a provi- sional hypothesis and as a storehouse of suggestion. Perhaps the most interesting chapter is that which deals with the social and economic history of the reign in particular, with the origins of the Staple. Prof. Tout connects the first Staple Ordinance of 1313 with the Ordinances for the Reform of the Household of 1311, and thereby claims for the Ordainers whose work has been " so often regarded as a mere illustration of baronial reaction " a share, modest though it be in English economic development. The history of the Staple during the short period from 1313 to 1327 is extraordinarily complete. Established first at Saint Omer, after sundry vicissitudes it was in 1326, by the Ordinance of Kenilworth, transferred to fourteen towns in England, Ireland, and Wales a measure popular with the general run of English merchants, but opposed, as was natural, by foreigners and those in closer connexion with them. The fall of Edward in the following year brought with it the abolition for the time being of the Staple bringing to an end an attempt at economic adjustment which was repeated on the same lines, though with more amplitude and success, about a generation later.

By no means the least valuable part of the book are the Appendixes. Appendix I. gives the text of the Household Ordinances of Edward II., and Appendix II. a list of the officials during his reign.

The Antiquary for July contains an illustrated article by Mr. Druce on ' Birds in Mediaeval Church Architecture,' and refers to the difficulty in identifying the numerous carvings of birds in churches " not so difficult with those which possess distinctive natural features, such as the peacock, swan, and owl, or where there are accessory details, as in the case of the pelican or ostrich ; but when birds occur singly, and have no special characteristics, it is generally impossible to distinguish them."

Mr. Eminson concludes his account of The Howes of the Manor of Scotter in I.indsey, and Mary Philip her account of New Hall, Chelms- ford. The latter is illustrated by views of the

Hall, including the front entrance, showing royal arms, inscription to Elizabeth, and Sidney crest. There is an article on ' The Mulberry Tree of Stratford-on-Avon,' by our frequent contributor Mr. Aleck Abrahams. In this he records how in 1600 William Shakespeare planted a mulberry- tree at New Place. " This flourished they rarely fail and tradition fondly depicts the poet-dramatist entertaining Ben Jonson, Drayton,. and other friends under its overhanging branches- This," continues Mr. Abrahams, " reads pleasantly,, but it is improbable. The tree is of slow growth- A specimen at Kenwood attained a height of twenty-five feet after thirty-eight years' growth v but the trunk was only thirteen inches in diameter,, and Shakespeare's tree had only been planted seven years when he died." Mr. Abrahams gives the different versions as to its destruction, which may be assumed to have taken place in October ,. 1758. " The greatest purpose for which any of the wood was utilized was the casket to contain the freedom of the borough presented to Garrick in 1768. Garrick also had two cups made from the wood jone for his own use, and the other carved to his own design. On its sides there was a medallion with profile portrait of Shakespeare, his. arms, and the following lines :

Behold this fair goblet, 'twas Carved from the tree

Which o' my sweet Shakespeare

Was planted by thee.

As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine ; What comes from thy hand must be ever divine f

Garrick.

This was presented to Munden, and used by the distinguished actors known as ' the- rebellious eight ' to pledge ' the immortal, memory of Shakespeare at their meetings Leldt to consider their differences with the proprietors. of Covent Garden Theatre."

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JULY.

IT is always a pleasure to look through the- scholarly catalogues of Mr. P. M. Barnard of Tunbridge Wells. We have now two new ones in our hands : No. 92, describing Autographs,. MSS., and Documents ; and No. 93, describing books chiefly of Mediaeval interest. The former contains a number of interesting liturgical items,.. Ethiopic, Dutch, Hindustani, Greek, and Latin ;: an interesting English armorial compiled between 1550 and 1565, containing 790 coats of arms, em- blazoned in their proper tinctures, 8/. 15s. ; a Gospel of St. Mark in the Vulgate, evidently forming part of a longer MS., written by a thir- teenth-century English scribe, 10L 10. ; a collec- tion of four fourteenth- and fifteenth -century MSS. in English, written probably in East Anglia,. giving receipts for medicines and other similar matters, 351. ; and a rather miscellaneous collec- tion of treatises, written out by fifteenth-century English scribes on 235 leaves, catalogued under the name of John Waldby, author of some of them, III.

In the way of autographs we noticed a docu- ment signed by Sir Philip Sidney, 1576, KM. 10. ;. a letter of Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, 87. Ids. ; a letter, having nine lines added to it and the signature in the hand of Queen Marguerite,.