Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/25

 ii s.rv. JULY i,i9iL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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revisers, which was probably an advantage. The A. V. actually lacks, so far as extant evidence goes, the authority indicated by its title ; but Lord Selborne is quoted as writing to The Times in 1881 to suggest that the Order in Council which gave this authority was among the Council books and registers destroyed by fire in January, 1618, O.S. Mr. Pollard, however, nctes that the A. V. was " appointed," not ordered, for church reading, and suggests that, all parties being agreed, legal formalities were omitted. This is supported by earlier usage.

The Records are well chosen, and supply many interesting things. We find Tyndale's own narrative of his experiences in London ; Dobneck's account in Latin (with a translation) of how he routed Tyndale out of Cologne ; and Sir Thomas More's views concerning the use of the words " prestys," " chyrch," and " charyte." Some of the Spelling in these documents is quaint. Thus Coverdale speaks of the Vulgate as " costum- ably red in the church." The preface to the version of 1611, ' The Translators to the Reader,' is not devoid of pedantry, and is overloaded with quotations from the Fathers and a few pagan authors ; but it contains a good deal of sound sense which might be profitably considered^ by revisers of the Prayer Book.

The Cornhill for July is a Thackeray number, and supplies a good deal of interest concerning the great novelist. A Centenary Poem and an unpublished portrait of Thackeray from a photo- graph of 1863 are the first items. When we say that the poem is by Mr. Austin Dobson, our readers will know that it is informed with the neatness and grace which make appreciation seem so easy. Lady Ritchie's charming note by way of Preface to the newly discovered ' Cockney Travels ' is a little guide to their method and merits. It is as well, however, to add that, unlike other recovered pieces, the ' Travels ' are a real find, worth reading by all admirers of the master. A letter in fac- simile by W. M. T. to " Dear Yedward " (Fitz- Gerald), including a characteristic sketch of a chambermaid, is excellently gay, and explains inter alia :

" I wrote a poem in the Llangollen Album as follows

A better glass nor a better Pipe

I never had in all my life.

Saml. Rogers."

' The Knights of Borsellen ' is another Thackeray novelty, an early fragment to which Lady Ritchie contributes an illuminating preface. The story, which has several of the author's sketches, belongs to the days of English chivalry in France recorded by Monstrelet and Fioissart. Lady Ritchie tells us of Thackeray's study of these authorities, and hesitation at the end of his life "as to whether he should not revert to the story for which he had read up so carefully, and of which he had written the opening chapters."

Two papers follow by Mrs. Warre Cornish on ' Thackeray and his Father's Family,' and by Mr. F. B. Bradley-Birt on ' " Sylhet " Thackeray,' a sixteenth child who went out to India in 1766. He was able to retire to England for thirty-six years after ten abroad, but none of his six sons who went thither had the same good fortune. " Sylhet " Thackeray lived long enough to hear of the birth of his grandson on 18 July, 1811

VTrs. Cornish's paper is a pleasant exposition of Thackeray's home affection and kindliness to children. Mr. Birt's would be more interesting. f he could have told us more of the tastes of Thackeray's grandfather. We learn that he was a generous friend and patron, absorbed in the education of his sons and daughters, and busy n his garden, but we are not told whether he had iterary or artistic ability.

There are, of course, other members of the family who were well known before the novelist came to repute, as may be seen in Gunning's ' Reminiscences of Cambridge.'

The appearance of this memorial number suggests that a book might be made out of different aspects of Thackeray, his family, home life, public appearances, &c., an article being devoted to each.

At the end of the number answers are given to the paper on Stevenson ; and Sir Algernon West sets another on the letters and works of Thackeray.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JULY.

MR. JAMES G. COMMIN'S Exeter Catalogue 275 is devoted principally to books from the library of our old contributor the late Dr. T. N. Brush- field, and opens with a collection of publications and original manuscripts by and relating to- Hawker of Morwenstow, several of the volumes having bibliographical notes by Dr. Brushfield.. The price of the collection is 18Z. Among letters in Hawker's characteristic hand is one dated Nov. 10th, 1853, in which he writes : "I beg to say that not a trace of the original Trelawney Ballad beside the two lines of the chorus which are incorporated in my Song ever turned up." In an article in MS. he quotes the doorhead verse graven in stone over the church of Mor- wenstow Vicarage :

A House : a Glebe : a Pound a day : A Pleasant Place to Watch and Pray : Be True to Church : Be Kind to Poor : O Minister ! For evermore.

Other items in the Catalogue include, under America, Monardes's ' Joyfull Newes out of the New-found Worlde,' black-letter, 1596, 4Z. 15s. (the concluding portion, ' Of the Benefit of Snow, *~ is wanting). Under Bibliography is a large-paper set of Pollard's " Books about Books," 6 vols., 31. 10s. There are works under Cornwall, Devon- shire, Lancashire, London, &c. Dictionaries include ' The English Dialect Dictionary ' and Farmer and Henley's ' Slang Dictionary.' There are a number of Halliwell-Phillipps's works, and many curious old medical books.

Mr. George T. Jwckes sends the " Special Corona- tion Issue " of his Catalogue, and the title, Bibliotheca Rariora, is fully justified. The pub- lications of the Essex House Press include the Book of Common Prayer, 1903, of which the first copy was pulled especially for Edward VII., 77. 7s. ; and Gray's ' Elegy,' 51. 5s. Among the Kelmscott Press productions is Ellen Terry's copy of ' The Earthly Paradise,' 8 vols., with book-plate, 150Z. (the first book printed on the paper with the apple watermark). Other choice specimens of the Kelmscott Press are Keats's ' Poems,' The Golden Legends,' and ' The Life