Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/125

 ii s. vin. A. 9, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

these documents, chiefly belonging to the twelfth century, for which the historian ot institutions will not fail to thank him.

THE problem of India is put in the forefront of the August Nineteenth Century, where first Sir William Lee-Warner acutely discusses the

?roblem of providing an efficient Civil Service for ndia, and then Mr. Geoffrey Cookson forcibly challenges the capacity of any English Civil Service, however efficient, to deal with the diffi- culties, decade by decade intensified, that spring from diversity of race, and yet more from diver- gence of ideals. Miss Rose M. Bradley gives us an easy and well-proportioned sketch of Mrs. Anna Larpent, the " Industrious Diarist of the Eigh- teenth Century," and wife of John Larpent, the licenser of plays, whose journal runs to seventeen volumes, recording her daily life from 1773 to 1830, and needs some search and patience before material for entertainment can be extracted from it. Mrs. Stirling's article on John Herring ' The Whip and the Brush 'struck us as a particularly pleasing biographical sketch ; and ' Petersburg in 1806 : from tiie Diary of R. H. Lawrence,' communicated by Mrs. Lawrence, if a rather heavy performance, contains several remarks and bits of description which are really interesting. Lord Harberton's ' Does it Rhyme ? ' a long paper full of repetitions labours under the disadvantage of being facetious without being witty, and boisterous without being convincing. The writer refers to Mrs. Hemans always as 11 Mother Hemans " no harm in that, of course ; we mention it merely as an indication of the kind of thing the reader may expect in the way of humour. Bishop Frodsham, though he comes to no conclusion and offers no counsel, gives us a useful picture of the conditions which surround the experiment of a white colonization of Tropical Australia.

WE have received from the London County Council the announcement of the publication of the fourth volume of their ' Survey of London.' This volume, which has been prepared by Mr. Walter H. Godfrey, a member of the Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London, relates in general to the western portion of the parish of Chelsea. It contains architec- tural descriptions, with topographical note;-, of about 65 of the most interesting build ings ; including Beaufort, Danvers, Lindsey Stanley, and Argyll Houses, and historical and, biographical notes on their most famous occupants. It is illustrated by 104 plates.

MR. CECIL CLARKE writes: "It is pleasant to be now able to record that a commemorative tablet to Benjamin Disraeli has, through the courtesy of the Duke of Westminster, just been placed upon No. 29, Park Lane. The inscription runs : Here lived Benjamin Disraeli Earl of Beaconsfield from 1839 to 1873.

This has been affixed to the wall on the left of the entrance to the house, which is in Upper Grosvenor Street. The token is of elegant design, in grey metal work with ornamental border, similar to the one erected at No. 10, South Street, Park Lane, to the memory of that 'ministering angel,' Florence Nightingale." (See 10 S. v. 483 ; vi. 52, 91,215, 356.)

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. AUGUST.

MR. B. H. BLACKWELL of Oxford devotes his- Catalogue 150 mostly to European Philology.. The works include the library of Dr. Sweet as well as books from E. W. B. Nicholson's collection. The index indicates the contents General and Comparative Philology ; Anglo-Saxon ; Gothic j. English Language (Old, Middle, and New English) ; Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ; German Language and Literature ; Dutch ; Romance Languages ; Old French ; Italian ; Spanish and Portuguese ; Russian and Slavonic ; Non-European, &c.

Mr. Blackwell has also a Catalogue of the first portion of the library of a collector of seven* teenth- and eighteenth-century literature. This comprises works relating to Defoe, Swift, Pope, and Johnson ; also books dealing with the history and topography of Oxford, and scarce Civil War- and other historical tracts.

MR. WILLIAM DOWNING'S Birmingham Cata- logue 520 contains the Ashendene Press Dante, ' folio, oak boards, 1909, 201. ; a very scarce book on Heraldry, Woodward and Burnett's, 2 vols., 1892, 4Z. 10s. ; and the Edition de Luxe of Tennyson^ 12 vols., 11. Is. (this includes the Life by his son). Under Armour is Hewitt's ' Ancient Armour/ 3 vols., crimson morocco, a very handsome set, 1855-60, 3Z. 3s. There is a choice copy of Bewick's ' Birds,' 2 vols., green morocco, 1804, 31. 10s. There is a copy of the only complete English edition of Plutarch's ' Lives and Morals/ 10 vols., 21. 10s. There is the Edinburgh edition of the Waverley Novels, 48 vols., 8vo, 1901-3, 131. 13s. ; also a set of Jesse's ' Court Memoirs,' 'George Selwyn,' and other works, 30 vols., 1901, 11. 18s. 6d. Under Gardens is Triggs's ' Gardens in England and Scotland,' 31. 3s. There are works under Heraldry and Genealogy. There are also a few gems of Egyptian origin from the Rustaff jael and other collections.

WE are glad to welcome the first Catalogue of Messrs. Sydney Harper & Sons of Bideford. It is a good general list, and the prices are moderate* There are works under Arctic and Astronomy. Devonshire of course finds a place. Under Fielding is a handsome set edited by Leslie Stephen, 10 vols., three-quarter levant. This copy is No. 134 of the Edition de Luxe, published at 40Z. Messrs. Harper offer it for 7 guineas. There is a cheap set of Newman's Sermons, 6s. Qd. On the front of the cover of the- Catalogue is affixed an illustration of the Queen Anne chair made to the order of the poet Gay in 1708. It is now in the possession of Mr. Sydney Harper.

MESSRS. LUPTON BROS., Burnley, have in their Catalogue No. 123 collections under Archaeology, Egyptology, Africa, Architecture, Australia, and Bibliography. A copy of the ' Century Dictionary ' is priced 31. 17s. 6d., published at 24Z. The tenth edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' pub- lished at 45Z., can be had for 9J. 9s. A set of the Lancashire Parish Register Society Publications, from the commencement, 1898, to 1905, is 6Z.

MR. ALEXANDER W. MACPHAIL'S Edinburgh List 115 has, as usual, a number of works of Scottish interest. Kay's ' Portraits,' first edi- tion, 4 vols., is 21. 2s. ; Douglas's ' Peerage of