Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/463

 us. vm. DEC. 6, 1913] NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

but I do not think his family came from Kent originally. His coat of arms is that of the Mansfields of London (Burke's ' Genera] Armory, '1878). It is quartered with another which I cannot identify. Can MR. LUMB say what the Spongs' coat of arms was ? None is given in Burke.

Between the three lions' heads of Capt. Mansfield's is an annulet, which means, I believe, that he was a fifth son. Have the four elder brothers left no descendants who could throw light on the subject ?

F. C. BALSTON. Springfield, Maidstone.

HISTORICAL MSS. (US. viii. 248). The MS. mentioned under (e) may perhaps be the same as

" Le Vite degli Uomini Illustri della Casa Strozzi commentario di Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi, ora intieramente pubblicato con* un ragionamento in- edito di Francesco Zeppi sopra la vita del Autore. Firenze, 1892."

This appears, from the ' Avvertenza,' to be the first edition of all the Lives, though several of them had been published separ- ately from the rest. J. F. R.

COACHING TOKENS (11 S. vi. 50, 133 ; viii. 416). In reply to W. B. H., the tokens are fully noticed in a series of articles on the ' Copper Tokens of the Eighteenth Century,' published in The Bazaar during, I think, the early eighties of last century. It is a pity that these articles, which are distin- guished by considerable erudition, have never been published in book-form.

G. A. H. S.

THE FIVE WOUNDS (US. viii. 107, 167, 217, 236, 337). In Cheddar Church, Somer- set, there is a stone slab bearing the Five Wounds, which is now placed under the east window in a chapel on the south side. I am informed that there is also a like representa- tion on the outside of the tower of the neigh- bouring church of Rodney Stoke, above the west door, with the figure of an angel bending over it. The date of the tower is said to be about 1260. W. D. MACRAY.

"MARRIAGE" AS SURNAME (11 S. viii. 287, 336. 378). In 1853, living in Colchester, I went to school with a girl of the name of Marriage who belonged to the Society of Friends. There were a number of others in the town at that time bearing the name. Quite recently (about 1909) the Mayor of Colchester was of that name.

(Mrs.) J. TARRING. Horsham.

For a number of years there was a grocer's shop with Barham & Marriage over it in Aldgate. I remember it in 1876.

I also came across the name of Marriage in Philadelphia in 1892.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

The Cambridge History of English Literature.

Edited by Sir A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller.

Vol. X. The Age of Johnson. (Cambridge

University Press.)

THIS volume introduces us to the full tide of eighteenth-century production and classics of world- wide fame. M. Cazamian, who leads off with ' Richardson,' and Prof. Nettleton of Yale, who deals with ' The Drama and the Stage,' are the only two contributors outside Great Britain. There was no reason, indeed, to go 'beyond this country for adequate appreciation of a century which on every side has attracted the attention of specialists.

Mr. Austin Dobson is the ideal commentator on Goldsmith, and his attractive survey shows all his power of packing an article with effective and illuminating detail. Mr. Nicol Smith's account of Johnson and Boswell, though sound in the main, is a little disappointing. The questions, Where did Johnson get his style ? and Had it any relation to his mental and physical condition ? do not appear to us to be answered. Johnson was capable of short, crisp English in his talk and in those writings the Letter to Lord Chesterfield, for instance in which he was particularly moved. The cleavage between this style and the mechanically balanced polysyllables has, of course, been noted frequently, but seldom, we think, adequately explained. Yet the expla- nation ought to be attempted. Boswell, as Mr. Dobson points out, was unfair to Goldsmith, but Mr. Nicol Smith does not tell us that the supreme biographer coloured his narrative accord- ing to his personal dislikes. This bias, perfectly well known in Boswell's day, is apt to be forgotten now. Holcroft, a contemporary and acute observer, speaks of Boswell as " overflowing with worldly cunning," " servile," and " selfish." The famous sentence about " the atrocious crime of being a young man " is mentioned as credited by Johnson to Pitt. It would have been better to say the elder Pitt or Chatham.

This history is one of Literature, not of Bio- graphy, but we feel that in these and other cases a few more touches as to the character of writers would add to the understanding of their work and influence. Garrick, for instance, was a superb actor and a most agreeable companion, but we know enough of him to regard him as an insincere man, a fnux bonhomme who deserved some of the worrying he got from his fellow- players.

The volume is strong on the inheritance of ideas, especially in Prof. Ker's excellent chapter on ' The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages,' which looks both before and after the special period under review. There is, however, one prominent tendency of the century which is not xamined here as it might be. We refer to the