Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/49

 us. xi. JAN. 9, IMS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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solicitors who had chambers below his, and to whom he deputed his legal business, and requested them to send a member of their firm to Cloister- ham who would be unknown to the person to be watched. The evidence shows " that Datchery was no detective in the ordinary sense, but an educated gentleman, a very ' diplomatic bird ' " ; and the essayist contends that " Datchery's speech corroborates his identity with Grewgious's lawyer friend," and asks : " Who but a lawyer^ would ever think of addressing Sapsea as ' The Worship- ful the Mayor ' or ' His Honour ' or ' His Honour the Mayor ' ? Such mode of address would suggest itself naturally to a lawyer desirous of flattering a provincial mayor."

In the chapter ' Was Edwin Murdered ? ' Mr. Saunders, looking at the notes made by Dickens for his private use, thinks it indisputable that they show that when they were made Dickens intended Drood to be murdered. " Of course he may subsequently have changed his mind and have revised his original plot so as to permit of Edwin Drood being resuscitated, but there is no evidence upon which to base such a theory."

Taking the enigmatical picture on the lower part of the cover of the monthly numbers, Mr. Saunders suggests that Jasper, having placed the body of Drood in the Sapsea monument, goes there to recover the ring in order to incriminate Neville ; but the latter, acting on information received, " had been before him and had secreted himself in the monument for the object of sur-

5 rising Jasper." Probably he was murdered by asper before the latter was mastered by Cri- sparkle and Tartar. Jasper rushes up the Cathe- dral tower pursued by Crisparkle and Tartar, who capture him after a desperate struggle, and he is lodged in jail, " where, in accordance with Dickens s expressed intentions, he would have written the full story of his temptations and crimes, and have paid the final penalty."

PART XC. of The Yorkshire ArchceologicalJournal, being the second part of vol. xxiii., is, with the exception of a few pages at the end, filled with Mr. W. G. Collingwood's illustrated description of ' Anglian and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in the West Biding, with Addenda to the North and East Ridings and York, and a General Review of the Early Christian Monuments of Yorkshire.'

The detailed account which Mr. Collingwood gives of pre-Norman crosses and gravestones is of manifest value for the study of the develop- ment and decay of sculpture in England be- fore the Conquest. The greatest artists, as well as the least gifted, owe much to traditional methods and traditional criteria. Like the Athenian statues, many crosses described by Mr. Collingwood were painted. Probably the patterns carved on them were picked put in different colours after the fashion of designs in contemporary book-illumina- tions. In some instances the derivation of a carving is obvious while the special reason for its use remains obscure. Among the difficulties which t are yet unsolved is one concerning the heathen legend of Volund, or Wayland, the Smith. Why should a scene from his story appear on grave-monuments ? " The incidents of northern mythology" so Mr. Collingwood puts it "on various crosses elsewhere a re usually such as might afford some allegory not unbecoming Christian

relief and teaching. The heroism of Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, might be taken as a parallel to the conquest of the powers of evil by St. Michael

or Christ Himself The chaining of Loki and

the strife of Vidar with the serpent are pas- sages in the old creed, which any converted Viking would accept as true But this Volund story

i> curious and savage legend, and not a variant of the Sigurd myth was in some way significant enough to be repeated at Leeds ; and at Gilling West there is the wing-motive, possibly debased from this. That the Volund story was known in Northumbria before the Danish invasion, seems to be proved by the Anglian ' Frank* Casket ' (British Museum), on which. . . .there are two groups, Egil seizing the birds and Bodvild visiting Volund in the smithy .... The legend is very old, not an importation of the Viking age ; but its significance on Christian monuments does- not yet seem to be explained."

Possibly it was for family reasons that pagan stories were represented on grave memorials and: other sculptures. The donor of a cross or font , might be accounted a descendant of Volund or- Sigurd, and might naturally desire to see the legend associated with his kin reproduced on: his gift. Moreover, it must be remembered that ancient convictions will survive with great tenacity long after the reception of a new creed might be expected to make them appear absolutely unreasonable. To take one instance alone : Mr. J. C. Lawson's ' Modern Greek Folk-Lore and Ancient Greek Religion ' shows how obstinately the popular beliefs of pagan days still assert themselves about the Eastern Mediterranean, sometimes linked with Christianity, sometimes, unconnected with it.

The Nineteenth Century and After for January- has eight or nine weighty papers on divers aspects, of the one absorbing topic. The three essays on the problem of voluntary versus compulsory service with which the number begins, and Mr. Spenser Wilkinson's weighty discussion of the spirit and methods which belong to " Great War," will doubtless, and deservedly, attract the most attention and thought. ' Some Personal Memo- ries of Treitschke,' by Mr. William Harbutt Dawson, is also a paper of the highest interest,, which corrects several misapprehensions, and vividly accounts for the daemonic kind of ascend- ancy Treitschke acquired. Bishop Frodsham's is a welcome contribution, throwing a clear, decisive light upon more than one side of the problem. Dr. Dearmer writes charmingly and with information upon Russia. One curious fact he gives seems worth mentioning here : he says that, a census being taken of favourite books in certain Russian village libraries, the work which "came out top" was a transla- tion of ' Paradise Lost.' The most important paper connected with modern literature the author's name ensures that it will not be missed by lovers of the newer poetry is Mr. J. Elroy Flicker's fascinating appreciation of ' Paul Fort.' Historical detail which, in some degree, illustrates the present situation is provided in the second in- stalment of Lady Kinloch-Cooke's communicated ' Letters from Paris and Soissons a Hundred Years Ago "being' The "Hundred Days," and After ' ; and in Mrs. Stirling's study from the Hotham papers of the 'Devil Diplomatists of Prussia.'
 * Effects of the War upon Non-Christian Peoples '.