Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/306

300 to me for examination undoubtedly represents the remains of two individuals of different ages, height, and muscularity"; but he was not prepared to give a definite opinion as to the sex of both. One, he was convinced, was a male; he estimated the stature at 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. So far as is known, no prehistoric interment has ever been found in the township of High Buston, although some three fields' breadth to the south, in a field called Hilly Low in Low Buston, there was found in 1815 an urn, now in the museum at Alnwick.

Mr. P. Newbold read a paper on the excavations on the Roman Wall at Limestone Bank. No coins or objects of metal were turned up, but the pottery, though scanty, was sufficiently distinctive to give a rough date for the period of construction, which falls somewhere in the third century, and probably in the second half of the century.

Dr. Richardson's subject was the Bishopric of Durham under Anthony Bek, 1283-1311. The bulk of the material for the history of Bishop Bek's rule will probably long remain in MS. The more important parts of it are in the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Durham. This treasury is "particularly rich in documents bearing on the bishop's quarrels with the monks, and with his and their relations to the Pope." There are also documents in the Record Office and in the British Museum. Dr. Richardson gives a bibliography of sources. His paper occupies 140 pages.

There is a Report on the continuation of the Corstopitum excavations. These were begun early in July last year, and the filling-in was not completed till after the middle of October. Several buildings were found, and "further light was thrown on the industries of Corstopitum by the discovery of a pottery, with a large quantity of fragments of a coarse ware, evidently manufactured on the site from local clay, and of a series of small smithies, in which iron arrowheads and other articles had been made. The larger finds included an altar, fragments of two inscribed slabs, and a few pieces of sculpture. Bronze objects were not very plentiful, but a statuette of Mercury, found during the filling-in, was the best thing of its class yet discovered on the site." The coins found during 1912 are held over for collective treatment with those which may be found in the present year's excavations.

This interesting volume, which is full of illustrations and plans, closes with Part III. of the Rev. William Greenwell's manuscript catalogue of Durham seals, collated and annotated by Mr. C. Hunter Blair.

best articles in the October Nineteenth Century are political and social rather than literary. Of the two papers on Irish affairs, Sir Henry Blake's 'How is Civil War to be Averted?' concludes, after a lengthy survey of possibilities, with the counsel to withdraw the present Home Rule Bill and call a conference between opposing forces; and Sir Bampfylde Fuller's 'A Psychological View of the Irish Question' begins with an analysis of Irish characteristics, and proposes for the present situation the rather original solution of a parliament to each province. Mr. Kennedy has a paper 'What the Workmen Think,' which, to be as effective as it deserves to be, seems to us to need somewhat fuller documentation.

One of the most interesting things in the number is Capt. A. H. Trapmann's account of the short, but inconceivably terrible campaign between the Greeks and the Bulgarians last July. The writer was a war correspondent with the Greeks, and narrates what he witnessed with his own eyes. If the Greeks, indeed, are what he describes them to be—and it seems difficult to gainsay—it is good to think that the world holds such men. Mr. Harold F. Wyatt recounts well, if a little heavily, the story of Senlac and what led up to it, and pleads—not, we think, without reason—for some memorial to be erected in Westminster Abbey to Harold. Mr. Darrell Figgis has much to say that is worth saying of 'Some Recent Notable Novels,' though he seems not quite exempt from the foible of taking his subject too seriously—a foible juts now rather conspicuous in criticism, and one which has the effect of making the reader turn frivolous. We liked Mr. Francis Gribble's 'Denis Diderot,' rather slight though it is, better than most of the French sketches from his pen that we have recently read. Miss Sydney Phelps gives us another of her charming and sympathetic sketches of her London friends; and Miss S. Macnaughtan has an essay on humour which, somehow, does not enlighten us on the subject nearly so satisfactorily as do some of her other works.

have received the following from the Secretary of the Historical Medical Museum:—

"In response to numerous requests it has been decided to defer the closing of the Historical Medical Museum until October 31st. During the month of October it will remain open from 10 to 6  daily, and from 10  to 1  on Saturdays. After this date it will be closed for a few months for rearrangement as a Permanent Museum. It is proposed to reopen the Museum in its permanent form in the spring of next year."

all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

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.

secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answering queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate."

—Forwarded to S. H. A. H.

writes: " will find the reference inquired for in Mrs. Stopes's edition of the Sonnets published by the De La More Press (Alexander Moring, Ltd.) in 1904, p. 208."