Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/339

 ii s. v. APRIL 6, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Cambridge County Geographies : East London, by Gr. F. Bosworth ; Monmouthshire, by Herbert A. Evans ; Carnarvonshire, by J. E. Lloyd ; The Isle of Man, by the Rev. John Quine. (Cambridge University Press.)

WE are particularly glad to notice the appearance of four more numbers of this excellent series. Arranged as nearly as may be on a uniform plan, well equipped with maps and illustrations, and the work of men who can claim to be authorities each for his own district, the books, as a complete set, will put the reader in possession of all the main facts concerning the history and antiquities, the physical features and industries characteristic of the several counties of Great Britain and that at a very moderate cost. We notice that the editor does not pledge himself to a like treatment of Ireland.

Of the volumes before us, the one on East London no doubt represents the hardest task, seeing how enormous is the amount of material to be dealt with. It has been, on the whole, satisfactorily accomplished, though a certain lack of literary skill has led the writer here and there into odd ways of expressing himself, some- what to be regretted in the case of books which are to be used in schools e.g., " the tide ebbs and flows four times a day," " 011 the north side are the East India Docks at Blackwall, and here it is that the Thames on the north side terminates." We noticed also a good deal of repetition, the avoidance of which would have saved space for matters perforce neglected. Still, these 256 pages are packed with information, including much entertaining detail ; and a word of special praise for the illustrations is no more than their due. We were also glad of the index a feature absent from the other three books.

Prof. Lloyd's ' Carnarvonshire " is a sympathetic piece of work particularly in regard to mediaeval history and remains, and in the descriptions given of the well-known scenery. From this background the details concerning modern life and industries, which are duly given, gain a new kind of interest.

In 'Monmouthshire' Mr. Herbert A. Evans had a subject full of contrasts, and he has suc- ceeded in bringing these out effectively, considering the small compass within which he had to work. He tells us that, rich field though it is to the naturalist, the fauna and flora of Monmouthshire have never yet been treated as a whole ; and we hope that his suggestive sentences will fall under the observation of some one who has the qualifica- tions necessary for remedying this defect.

Canon Quine's account of the Isle of Man is written for the most part with a precision and clearness which make it unusually pleasant reading. The section of peculiar interest is, of i course, that on the Manx Crosses. We are glad i to learn that these are being carefully protected, I and that a complete set of casts of the crosses on i the island is now to be seen in the Museum at j Castle Rushen.

Benrenuto Cellini, by Mr. Robert H. Hobar* 1 Cust, is one of the " Little Books on Art " published by Messrs. Methuen & Co. Mr. Cust prepared the translation of Cellini's ' Autobiography ' issued in 1910 by Messrs. Bell, and the biography before us is, almost inevitably, a resume of that- most entertaining classic, with those incidents omitted which have no bearing on Benvenuto's work as an artist. The ' Autobiography,' it is not difficult to see, is a little world which Mr. Cust knows by heart ; and in some degree the thoroughness of his knowledge has been a dis- advantage to him. The copiousness of the detail which he has crowded into 180 small pages is so great that the character of Cellini seems buried beneath it, and the writer has hardly a line to spare for the descriptions and reflections which, in some small but adequate measure, are a necessary element in the writing of a popular book. The task was doubtless unusually diffi-> cult, for few artists have lived a life so packed with inconsequent adventures as Cellini ; still, the fact remains that, to the reader who knows, the ' Autobiography,' this volume adds but little that is new in the way of criticism or other enlightenment, while for those who have not yet made Cellini's immediate acquaintance it pre- sents an endless stream of facts which must prove rather fatiguing reading, especially as t he- writer's style is decidedly of the journalistic type..

Nevertheless, the book ought to prove usefu!.. containing, as it does, all the essentials concerning Cellini's fife and achievement, and offering no fewer than forty illustrations, together with a list with dates of works recorded in the ' Auto- biography,' the " Treatises " or contemporary documents, and a further account of the authentic works of Cellini still in existence. The little- volume is prettily got up and pleasantly printed..

THE chief literary articles in this month's Port- nightly Revitv: are Mr. S. M. Ellis's account of ' George Meredith and his Relatives,' and M. Paul Seippel's appreciation of Romain Rutland's ' Jean- Christophe.' Mr. Ellis takes us back to the Ports- mouth of the early nineteenth century, and to the atmosphere, with a difference, of ' Evan Harring- ton ' ; the story he has to tell is, as he himself remarks, a " rather sad comedy." By M. Seipnel the general English public should be stimulated to give greater attention to the progress of that idealist crusade which is being steadily carried on in France, with the author of ' Jean-Christophe ' at its head. Mrs. Maud gives us an interesting paper on ' Abdul Balm,' drawn chiefly from his utterances while in, England in answer to many eager questioners. Mr. Lewis Melville's ' William Cobbett ' is good reading ; he puts us in a cheerful humour at once by starting with amusing examples of Cobbett's extraordi- nary and yet not exactly offensive "goodly conceit of himself." Mr. \\. S. Lilly, in ' Substi- tutes for Christianty,' another of his studies of the Catholic question in the French Revolution, gives us a description of those doings between 178ft and 1799 which, regarded apart from the ques- tion of good or evil, are among the strangest in. human history. He brings forward information which in most accounts of the time is omitted. The political articles offer much that is worthy of careful consideration : in particular Mr. R. C. Long's ' The New Reichstag and the Old Policy,' and ' Repeal or Home Rule?' by " An Outsider.'