Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/380

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii 8. xii. NOV. 6) ms.

general remarks about the " occurrence in war- time of the electrifying scng " which song,, if it occurs at all, " will probably not be a very good song " without an allusion to the ' Mar- seillaise.' Nor do we agree with him that the
 * irresistible word " Tipperary " is the " real

secret " of the success of our own " war-song " : that lies also, we think, partly in the " long way." Mr. Basil Williams contributes a good piece of work in ' Charles Fox and the American Revolu- tion ' ; and the subject-matter 'of Mr. Humphry Ward's ' Aliens, Wedgwoods, and Darwins ' is charming, though we confess we thought some of it rather feebly handled.

THIS month's Fortnightly Revieiv gives us at least one fascinating paper not concerned with the war Mr. Edmund Gosse's review of Lord Redesdale's ' Memories.' In it one of the most important of recent books is appraised with the insight and the breadth of judgment it so em- phatically deserves. We said the paper was not 'Concerned with the war it quotes, however, as a concluding paragraph the note hi the " Last Word " .appended to the book, giving the extraordinary rinformation of the Kaiser's action in entering his yacht for the Cowes Regatta even so late .as 10 July, 1914. We must confess to grievous disappointment in the article on 'Art and the War ' by Mr. John Galsworthy, to which we had turned with rather high hopes. No one certainly has yet succeeded hi finding the right term for the effect that art produces should ami to produce. Yet, clearly, without some name for it, some description of it, it would be difficult to bring out any relation of art to war. Mr. Gals- worthy, however, seems to us to be more than usually unlucky in calling it " breadth of heart," and we are not surprised that the idea has not led him to anything very profitable. Mrs. Aria's ' Fashion, its Survivals and Revivals ' to put it bluntly seemed to us quite unworthy of a place "in this review. There is hidden in that title a fascinating essay, full of wit, humour, naughtiness if you will. But this writer has not disengaged it, gives indeed pages only one degree more respectable from the literary point of view than the Berthas and Veras and so on who write the fashion columns for the daily press. The rest of the number is of political interest ; we may mention . a second instalment of Magdeleine ver Mehr's ' Vignettes from the Italian Front,' and a deeply interesting article (perhaps the most really im- portant in the number) on ' The Military Prepara- tion of Young France,' by Mr. G. E. Pitt.

THE two articles in the current Nineteenth Century which properly fall within our scope are Tx>th of great interest. Dr. C. Hagberg Wright in ' The Peasant Songs of Russia ' has a subject of quite unusual freshness and charm. The selection he gives us consists wholly of songs relating to marriage, and these illustrate customs and beliefs remote indeed from those of W 7 estern Europe. Dr. Hagberg Wright introduces into the account of them very useful notes on Russian legends. The second article is Mr. H. M. Wai- brook's remarkably attractive history of the editorial work and customs of The Pall Mall Gazette under its last four editors. Miss Mac- naughtan's paper entitled ' The Care of Wounded, Then and Now,' and that of Dr. Mary Scharlieb -on ' The Medical Woman : her Training, her

Difficulties, and her Sphere of Usefulness,' are full of good things and of encouragement for the future ; and Prince Kropotkin contributes a discussion of some importance on ' Inherited Variation in Annuals.'

WE think The Cornhill this month somewhat less attractive than we usually find it. Mrs. Asquith's description of a visit to Hawarden 12-18 Dec., 1889 is entertaining and something more ; its clever selection of details, and its lively portraiture as well as some few noteworthy sayings ot Gladstone's, give it a claim to count as a permanent contribution to Gladstoniana. And how amusing to see once more the advanced young lady of the later eighties ! Then there is a good account by Mr. A. M. D. Hughes of life at Ruhleben ; and a comprehensive sketch ' At Westminster in War-time by Sir Henry Lucy. There are delightful passages in Mme. de Cour- sor.'s ' Senlis To-day,' as in Mrs. M. E. Clarke's 'British Women at W 7 ork in France.' Mr. H. F. Brown in ' The Carlops ' gives some curious historical details, of which seme of our readers may well be glad to take note ; and those who are making a study of Russian things will find Mr. Hutchinson on the " Discovery " of that country profitable, though nowise exciting. S. G. Tallentyre's paper on ' Fear ' is compli- mented almost unkindly in being introduced as a, " pendant " to Dr. Shipley's recent paper a piece of solid scientific statement on ' Hate,' for it is flimsy and fairly commonplace. The fiction, too, we think rather so-so though Mr. Adams in ' The Red Box ' had a remarkably good story to tell, if he could but have told it better.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.

CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded to other contributors should put on the top left- hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified.

M.A.OxoN. Forwarded direct to G. F. R. B.

BARONESS VON ROEMER. Forwarded to MR. QUARRELL.

MR. RALPH J. BEEVOR and MESSRS. LONGMANS- Forwarded.

MR. JOHN CHARRINGTON. See correspondence on the word " lienin ' originating in the quotation printed in The Times of 11 Oct. a??te,pp. 321, 364.

" THE TALLEST ONE - PIECE FLAGSTAFF IN THE

BRITISH EMPIRE." MR. ARDAGH sends a note to those interested in this question to consult Kew Bulletin, 1896, p. 97; 1914, p. 87. (See 11 S. ix. ? 94, 254 ; xii. 73.)

E. WILLIAMS (" Disraeli's Sonnet on the Duke of Wellington "). This sonnet was printed in N. & Q.' as long ago as 1855 (1 S. xi. 379). Its history is recorded at 8 S. iii. 402. It has been included in and ' Sonnets of this Century,' published in 1886.
 * Sonnets of Three Centuries,' published in 1882,

CORRIGENDUM. P. 316, col. 2, line 2 from foot, for "is" read.