Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/140

 1,32

NOTES AND QUERIES. (n s. xn. AC. u, 1915.

,nd soldiers and sailors, lullabies with the " Lore Randal " or poison motif, and ballads which cluster round the famous traditional theme o:" the loss of the " Golden Ball," which the editoi here interprets as a symbol of a maiden's honour "Somewhat apart from the rest is the theme o the " Bold Fisherman " with the " three robes of gold," which the editor we think quite correctly attributes to a mystical source, seeing in it an allegory of the union of Christ with the human soul. The work of saving some of our traditional heritage of music and song is so meri- torious that every reader of ' N. <fc Q.' must wish well to the compilers and editor of this most satisfactory publication.

BOOKS ON TEAVEL AND SPORT.

A CONSIDERABLE number of books of travel and works on different forms of sport are described in the Catalogues before us, and we have noted, too, several interesting sets of pictures which may be taken to belong under one or the other of these headings.

The curious reader who hankers after old books of travel in their original form will find some examples in Messrs. Leighton's ' Early Printed Books,' from which we may cite as a specimen a Mandeville from the press of J. Priiss at Strassburg ' Reise nach Jerusalem,' dated 1484, and offered for 1551.

Good facsimile and other editions of the older travels are not hard to come by ; thus we noted Messrs. Sotheran's ' Purchas his Pilgrims ' in the Glasgow reprint of some ten years ago (14Z.), as well as their ' Hakluyt,' which was published in Edinburgh in the eighties (12Z. 12s.). William George's Sons of Bristol offer for IZ. 5s. the recent reprint of Coryat's ' Crudities ' ; and Messrs. Hill offer for 21. 12s. Sir Henry Yule's ' Marco Polo ' in the third edition. Sixteenth- and seven- teenth - century books of travel in the original or an early edition are tolerably numerous : among them a collection of four rare works relating to the West Indies and Central America (Wafer, Sharp, Froger, and Blome), bound together in two volumes and offered by Messrs. Rimell for 121. 12s., and, from the same catalogue, Edward Terry's ' Voyage to East India.' 1655 (71 17s. Qd.). Under America Messrs. Sotheran describe Las Casas's ' Narratio Regionum Indicarum ... devastatarum,' 1598 (4:1. 15s.) ; and Mr. Richardson of Manchester gives particulars of a good copy of Doncker's ' Atlas,' 1662 (81. 10s.). One of the best of the well-known books of somewhat later date is Burchell's ' Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa,' of which Messrs. Rimell have a good copy with all the folding aquatints and. the map complete, 1822 ( 17Z. ). Australian travel is pretty well represented; we may mention Angas's ' South Australia Illus- trated,' which appears in Messrs. Rimell's Cata- logue, 1847 (11Z. 11s.), and a copy of Lycett's ' Views in Australia ' (1824), which appears in Mr. Richardson's Catalogue priced 15Z. Most of the firms we have mentioned, as Well as Mr. Francis Edwards, have good collections of nineteenth- century and recent books of travel, the items of which cost but a few shillings.

A useful and well-arranged list of inexpensive copies of books of travel has been sent us by Mr. A. H. Mayhew. Anthropologists may like to note that Mr. Mayhew has a copy of the ' Expedition to

Central Australia,' the well-known work contain- ing the results of the labours of a group of scientific men to whom we owe many new facts and inter- pretations connected with the life of the aborigines (11. 15s.). Leroy-Beaulieu's ' L'Empire des Tsars et les Russes ' is worth mentioning also three volumes (' Le Pays et les Habitants,' ' Les Institu- tions,' 'La Religion') offered for 21. 10s. ; and a good work on the other side of the question is T. P. Hughes's ' Dictionary of Islam.' 1885 (II. 5s.).

The books and pictures on Sport make serried and lively reading, and many of the items are of considerable importance. Messrs. E. Parsons & Sons have a collection of 73 plates of racing and hunting scenes and portraits of horses and sportsmen good engravings from well-known artists for which they are asking 150Z. The same firm has also a set of the (New) Sporting Magazine in thirty-eight vols. from 1852 to 1870 (18Z. 18s.). Two other attractive items from the same catalogue are a copy of Swebaclrs ' Equitation ' (2Z. 2s.), and one of Salvin and Brod- rick's ' Falconry in the British Isles ' (6Z. 6s.). One of the most important books on horsemanship we have noted is Mr. Francis Edwards's first edition (Anvers, 1658) of the Duke of Newcastle's ' Methode et Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux,' of which a fine copy is not dear at 12Z.

Messrs. Maggs devote to ' Sports and Pastimes ' nearly 60 pages of their Catalogue 338, and they have examples of most of the chief writers and artists who have dealt with these, under most denominations of sport. There are half a dozen sets of Alken's work ; an original issue of the National Sport* of Great Britain ' (Clark's engraving) is the most considerable, and offered ! or 95Z. Under ' Angling and Fishing ' there is jlenty of Walton, and under this heading is also ncluded a set in thirteen vols. of The Annals cf Sporting and Fancy Gazette, 1822-8 (110Z.). It

impossible to take in detail the divers kinds of sport, none of which lacks some vein of real vorth, and we can only mention here what is aerhaps the greatest treasure of all, a first edition n Dutch of Jacobus de Cessolis's ' Game of Chess Moralised,' printed in 1479, and to be had for 105Z.

Capt. Harris's ' Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa ' (1840 ) is another veil-known work, of which Messrs. Parsons have a
 * opy, bound by Riviere (12Z. 10s.).

W T e have already exceeded the space to be allotted to Catalogues, and we can only repeat of port what we said of travel that the booksellers vhose collections we have looked through are veil provided with works on the subject which hey are able to offer at moderate prices.

Our next article will be on first editions and ooks and autographs of literary interest belonging o the period c. 1830 to c. 1880.

Ox all communications must be written the name ind address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- ication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, .or can we advise correspondents as to the value f old books and other objects or as to the means of isposing of them.