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 n s. in. JUNE 10, 1911. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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novelists together. Thackeray credits Dickens with " quite a divine genius in many things," but quarrels with his art in not duly representing Nature, and regards Micawber as " no more a real man than my friend Punch is." The article on ' Henry Bradshaw ' by Mr. A. C. Benson is delightful much more intimate than his study last month. Bradshaw was a real character as well as a great librarian and an inspired biblio- grapher. The answers to Mr. Lang's paper on Scott are supplied, and we notice that he has given a second prize " to encourage research," while the new competition is on Stevenson, the paper being set by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.

Ix The Nineteenth Century politics hold a pre- dominant position, especially the new schemes of Mr. Lloyd George. Mr. Ralph Neville, for six years Judge in the Egyptian Native Courts, writes on ' The Muddle in Egypt and the Way Out,' giving voice to a discontent which seems to have attained formidable proportions of late years. The Hon. Emmeline Plunkett has a very interesting inquiry in ' Stonehenge and the Hyperboreans ' concerning the uses of that ancient monument for moon-worship, following up Sir Norman Lockyer's fascinating book on Stonehenge as a temple of the SUB. Astronomical evidence combined with historical suggests to her that the inhabitants of Britain and Brittany observed the moon in Sagittarius and the sun in Gemini as part of a cult resembling that of Artemis-Diana. The course of the moon is dragon-like, and the builders of Avebury, an older monument than Stonehenge, represented " the sinuous body of a snake in the two long avenues by which the circle was approached." Stukeley was, it is suggested, right in considering this as " a hieroglyphic symbol of highest note and antiquity," and it was, further, " the Dragon of the great Pendragonship." /

Mr. W. S. Lilly's ' Some Notes on- Chateau- briand ' are concluded. They do not seem to us to contain much that is new, nor can we rate highly some isolated dicta by the glorious politician which he regards as " literary judgments of the greatest value." Mr. H. H. Statham is always an inter- esting writer, and we find both insight and amuse- ment hi the couple who hold ' Conversations at the Salon and the Royal Academy.'

1 A SALUTE FROM THE FLEET ' is a dignified Coronation tribute from Mr. Noyes in The Fort- nightly, which has also a short and effective piece of verse, ' Coronal,' from Mr. Walter Sichel.

Index " has a character study of ' His Majesty the King,' in which the theatre is stated to be his favourite form of recreation. Certain obvious differences between him and King Edward are noted. Articles on ' The Royal Prerogative ' and ' The City of London and the Coronations ' follow. Mr. Sidney Low has a sympathetic study of Mrs. Rawdon Crawley which pleases us well. He points out that she " is the first embodi- ment in English fiction of the woman whose emotions are dominated by her intellect." He credits her with what many readers forget the bringing together of Dobbin and Amelia. Mr. D. C. Boulger suggests that England has only to take the lead to secu ; e ' The Preservation of the Field of Waterloo,' in which the other nations con- cerned are ready to assist. Mr. Francis Gribble continues in ' The Waning of Rachel's Star ' his clever st udies of the great actress, a pathetic

figure hi her loss of reputation and desperate struggles to hold her own against fading health J and the opposition of Madame Ristori. ' Abbas Effendi : his Personality, Work, and Followers/ by E. S. Stevens, is very striking. The chief representative of the faith of the Bab is a man of holy life, very different from the advertising: purveyor of religion. Mrs. Alec Tweed e's article on ' Women and Work ' ought 1 o be re- printed and distributed widely abroad, for it shows what women have done and can do in spite of the limitations imposed on them. It would be excellent and informing reading for many persons who generalize at large without adequate know- ledge. Foreign literature of note is introduced to English readers in ' The Misfortune of Being^ Clever,' a Russian comedy eulogized by Prince Bariatinsky, and ' L'Age Dangereux,' a French, translation of a German translation of a book by a Danish novelist, Karin Michaelis. Even as transmuted through two languages, this psycho- logical study by a woman has, we gather from Miss May Bateman, made a sensation in Paris. Mrs. Belloc Lowndes concludes the number with a short story, ' The Child,' which is painful, but effective.

IN The National Review the articles which interest us chiefly are ' Women who want the Vote/ by the Countess of Selborne, and ' Some Scottish Homes,' by Lady Edward Cecil. The amount of labour which a working woman does cheerfully and assiduously is not easily realized by the average man. Mr. H. C. Biron's ' Pope in Worsted Stockings ' is not strong as criticism, but the sort of study which should be very useful to-day. We should like Mr. C. E. Lawrence's plea for fairies, ' On Titania and Co.,' if it were less affected in style. We may ask why George MacDonald was not mentioned, and why an accomplished writer should make nonsense of a paraphrase of Words- worth by putting the Latin for a cowslip instead of a primrose.

THE editorial of The Burlington Magazine deals frankly with the ' Recent Extensions'at the National Gallery and the British Museum.' The new rooms at the former are described as handsome in appear- ance, but " they repeat and intensify some of the- faults of lighting and proportions which, since the report of the Boston Commission, must be regarded as inadmissible." As for the system of lighting, " there is hardly any great picture gallery on the Continent or in America, erected within the last ten or twenty years, in which such mistakes have been made, or at all events per- petuated."

Mr. Lionel Cust's very interesting ' Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections ' deal this month with several of our early kings, whose portraits are reproduced. Richard III.'s face is worthy of his Shakespearian reputation. Mr. Roger Fry writes on the Richard Bennett Collection of Chinese Porcelain now being shown in New Bond Street for the benefit of the National Art-Collections Fund, and, to judge from the illustrations here given, well worth a visit. Mr. G. F. Hill's con- tinuation of ' Notes on Italian Medals ' is full of good things. Mr. Claude Phillips thinks he- has found an unrecognized Carpaccio in Sir William Abdy's sale, a picture formerly attributed to Mantegna. Miss F. M. Stawell's account of tive, and we hope that they will be translated into English.
 * The Letters of Vincent van Gogh ' is most attrac-