Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/290

 238

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. MAR. 23, 1912.

report of a case in the Probate Division before Mr. Justice Bargrave Deane, which appeared in The Daily Mail of 22 October, 1910 :

" Mr. J. E. Vipond, managing clerk to Messrs. Wright, Brown Strong, solicitors, of Carlisle, formally proved the possession by the firm of the original Gretna Green registers. He explained the interesting fact that the surviving daughter of John Murray, of Allison's Bank, Tollhouse, went to India in 1875. Before going she mortgaged the books to her brother-in-law, Mr. George Graham. In 1889 they were purchased by Mr. Brown, of the firm of Wright & Brown. There were fifteen volumes, containing entries of 7,000 or 8,000 marriages/' T _ _

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

THOMAS TANNER, BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH (US. v. 149). The will of Bishop Tanner, proved 7 Feb., 1735 (P.C.C., 21 Derby), mentions some of his relatives, and may interest L. E. T.

Market Lavington in co. Wilts is named as his native place.

" I bequeath to my dear bretheren and sisters, Mr. John Tanner of Lowestoft, Mr. William Tanner of Topcroft, Mrs. Sara Barnes of Market Lavington, and Mrs. Grace Symonds of New Palace Yard, 400?. to each of them, and to my niece Frances Barnes 200?."

There is a legacy of 501. to " Mrs. Eliz. Tanner of Bristoll, the Relict of my B r Benjamin deceased," and to " my nephew Thomas Tanner, son of my late brother Benjamin, five shillings a week as long as he lives. I had once much better provided for him, but he thought fit to throw himself out of it."

His brother Joseph had previously died intestate, and the Bishop inherited two houses in East Cheap, London, which he bequeaths to his sister Grace Symonds.

His brother John, Commissary for the Archdeaconry of Suffolk and * Vicar of Lowestoft, was appointed executor and guardian to his son Thomas, then about 1 7 years of age. John Tanner, born in 1684 at Market Lavington, was Vicar of Lowestoft from 1708 to his death in Decem- ber, 1759. He married Marv, dau. of

Knight, who died 28 Nov., *1744, aged 62. John Tanner completed his brother's work. ' Notitia Monastica,' first published in 1695, and brought out the revised edition in 1744.

The son Thomas was a Prebendary of Canterbury and Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, from 1745 to 1786, dying there on 11 March, 1786, aged 68. He married Mary, dau. of Archbishop Potter: she died 30 April, 1779. R. FREEMAN BULLEN.

Bow Library, K.

on

The Cambridge. Mediceval History. Vol. I. The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms. (Cambridge University Press. )

THIS is the first instalment of a great work. Framed by Prof. Bury on tho lines laid down by Lord Acton for ' The Cambridge Modern History,' it aims at giving to both the general reader and the historical student what has not hitherto been available in English & comprehensive general narrative, which shall yet embody the results of recent research with sufficient fullness to serve also as a book of reference. Each chapter is written by a scholar who is a specialist in the particular period or subject discussed, and the list of contributors includes many names belonging to the Continent and to America. The editor* are Prof. Gwatkin and Mr. Whitney.

Any account, in English, of the fall of Rome and the rise of the Teutonic power must neces- sarily sustain a severe comparison. Among so- many writers and some of these to be known only through translation it could not be hoped that all, if any, would possess the gifts of a good! narrator, far less the genius of Gibbon. And it must be confessed that to make the ordinary student realize how powerful Gibbon's genius was, and what intractable material it had to work upon, nothing could be better than an hour or two spent over the chapters here dealing with the expansion and migrations of the Teutons, and their founding of kingdoms in Gaul. Neverthe- less, taking the book as a whole, one is agreeably surprised to find that the greater part of it is not merely erudite and informing, but also interesting. The sole means by which the history of this welter of nations can be redeemed from utter dreariness is by throwing into the clearest possible relief, on the one hand, the loading characters of the times, and on the other, the manifold developments and struggles of the Christian Church.

On the whole, that much has been satisfactorily accomplished best perhaps, in so far as the portrayal of character is concerned, in the earlier chapters. Three chapters whose contents set them somewhat apart from the rest are also deserving of special mention : the account of Altaian peoples in ' The Asiatic Background ' ; the discussion of ' Monasticism ' ; and the pages on ' Early Christian Art.'

There is a considerable amount of repetition. This was more or less inevitable, but if accepted as a necessity, and brought under some principle, might easily have been turned to advantage, As it is, not only have some minor discrepancies escaped notice, and some rather wide divergences of outlook been allowed, but, for want of being brought into relation with one another, the different accounts of the same event all alike tend to fail of their due effect. This is particu- larly the case with the Battle of Hadrianople, and", in a somewhat slighter degree, with the Battle of Chalons or of the Mauriac plain, as w T e must learn to call it. Not the least excellent feature of the Avork is the full Bibliography appended to each chapter..