Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/494

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s. xi. -

1915.

contents himself with using formulae which have "been given him to point the moral and adorn the tale of eschatological theories which, however meritorious as contributions to the topics oJ which he treats, are not likely to be taken as in any sense the final word.

It is a pity that an index has not been included in the volume, which is well illustrated.

Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica. Edited by W. Bruce Bannerman. Fifth Series. Vol. I. Part V. (Mitchell Hughes & Clarke, 2s. Qd.) THIS instalment gives the pedigrees of Tristram (Trystram and Trustram) and of Henderson of Broadholm, Dumfriesshire ; a genealogical detail of Stares of Portsea ; a pedigree of the Huguenot refugee family Roberdeau; and an interesting article on the family of Boothby, which recites Inquisitions and abstracts of wills, and notices of the family in divers Calendars of State Papers, besides giving an elaborate pedigree. The Dudderidge pedigrees are continued by that of Dudderidge of Stogumber, Somerset.

.Sonnets and Lyrics: a Little Book of Verse on the Present War. By the late Bertram Dobell. (P. S. & A. E. Dobell, Is. net.) IT would not be difficult to say of this little collection viewed as an essay in poetry one or two harsh truths ; and it is not easy to find much from the point of view of poetical achieve- -ment to say in its praise. Perhaps, however,
 * it is some indication of intrinsic merit in them

that these verses do arouse a quite distinct wish that one could more roundly praise them. They

express about the Kaiser, about the heroism

of Belgium, about the German atrocities, and about the hopes and stern resolves of the Allies what every one is thinking and feeling ; and if there is all too much of the obvious about them, they give forth also a ring of manliness, a ring of sincerity and pain, here and there a certain pathos of inadequacy, which may surely be allowed to count as redeeming qualities. It is clear that the writer took great trouble in the matter of diction and form, and he has so far

ibeen rewarded in that he has thereby given his work a touch of severity, and so rescued it from

'Sentimentality. He tells us in a preface that these verses served as occupation to him unable as he was to tear his mind away from thoughts of ,the war. They were, indeed, a noble choice of consolation for his closing days, and it will be surprising if they do not afford some similar solace to his friends and to like-minded readers.

.S urnames of the United Kingdom : a Concise

Etymological Dictionary. By Henry Harrison.

Vol.11. Part 10. (Eaton Press, Is. net.)

THIS new instalment of Mr. Harrison's work

takes from Seburgham to Sid(e)man. It includes

several illustrious names, as well as several

etymological puzzles. The variants and origin

of Shilleto have recently been discussed in our columns. Mr. Harrison who notes the form

'Shelito, which was given at 11 S. ix. 335 does not pronounce a decided opinion, but, on the whole, favours a Scandinavian derivation as likely (O.N. skiol, a shed, or sel, a shed on a mountain pasture, and O.N. id, a path, a cattle-
 * run). The best-known names in these pages are

not the specially difficult ones, yet we turn all the

same with interest to Sheridan (the wild man) Shelley (shelf or ledge), or Selborne where a derivation from sele, a hall, is to be accepted, not that from sealh t [a willow. The syllable sel is not often to be explained with certainty as in Selwood, or even in Selsey. The names derived from scir, bright, form an interesting group. Sibbering.it appears, has not been satis- factorily elucidated, and the same may be said of Shorting. A curious instance of the true meaning of a name being strangely unlike what its sound suggests to most people is Shark, Sharkey a version of the Celtic word for " love," " loving."

biittarg.

WILLIAM HAYMAN CUMMINGS.

WE greatly regret the death, which took place on Sunday, 6 June, of our valued correspondent the well-known musician Dr. W. H. Cummings, ex-Principal of the Guildhall School of Music. He was in his 84th year, and his long life, now in one way, now in another, was entirely devoted to music.

Born at Sidbury, he came when a child to live in London, where he was in the choir of St. Paul's, and later in that of the Temple Church. At 12 years of age he began to learn the organ , and at 16 was appointed organist at Waltham Abbey. During the sixties and seventies of the last century he was a prominent public singer ; and during the next decades he made his mark no less conspicuously as a teacher and organizer. He succeeded Sir Joseph Barnby as Principal at Principalship was distinguished by unusual success. It stands by no means alone as evidence of Dr. Cummings's practical ability. He was a x>pious writer on musical subjects the best mown of his books being ' The Rudiments of Music, 'which appeared in 1877 and the composer of several musical works. His adaptation of Mendelcsohn's music to the words "Hark! the herald angels sing," is no doubt the work of his which has chanced to go furthest and to become most widely known, though, perhaps, his nime is not always associated with it.
 * he Guildhall School of Music in 1896, and his

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. D ? r ij a ? ^ e advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers "at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.

F. DE H. L. Forwarded.

M. A. NEWMAN. For "the vision splendid" see Wordsworth's ' Ode on the Intimations of Immor- tality,' Stanza V.

T. PRITCHAKD. " Who rowing hard against the stream," &c., Tennyson, The Two Voices.'