Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/603

 iis.v.jFK E 22,i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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At sixteen he was back in his native village Kirkconnel working in a quarry, and two years later became a platelayer on the railway. At mealtimes he would read Shelley, Words- worth, and Tennyson ; and by the help of ' Cassell's Educator ' acquired French enough to puzzle out Racine and Moliere. Later, in like manner, he managed to read Goethe, Schiller, and Heine in German. In 1870 he began to send verses to The People's Friend of Dundee. The sub-editor, Mr. A. Stewart, brought Ander- son's work under the notice of George Gilfillan, who advised him to publish, and his first volume of poems appeared in 1873. It is in out-of-the-way biographies like that of Ander- son that the ' Dictionary ' renders special service. Those who have occupied prominent positions are certain of remembrance ; it is the more obscure workers who but for this ' Dictionary ' would in all probability be forgotten.

Among biographies connected with journalism we find those of Lord Glenesk better known as Sir Algernon Borthwick proprietor of The Morning Post, and Moberly Bell, manager of The Times. Among other names are those of Bailey, the author of ' Festus ' ; Alexander Bain, psychologist ; Robert Nisbet Bain, historical writer and linguist ; Barnardo, the founder of the Homes which bear his name; Ada Ellen Bayly, better known as " Edna Lyall " ; and Dorothea Beale, Principal of The Ladies' College, Cheltenham.

There is a memoir of Robert Buchanan, poet and novelist, which revives the memory of the bitter controversy concerning 'The Fleshly School of Poetry.' Among politicians we find Campbell- Baiinerman, the Marquis of Hartington, eighth Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Salisbury, and Sir Charles Dilke. With regard to Sir Charles Dilke there are mistakes both in the references made to The AthencEum and in those to 'X. & Q.' With the latter we are more'directly concerned. Charles Wentworth Dilke did not establish ' N. & Q.' Our founder was his great friend William John Thorns. Dilke was the first member of our brotherhood, and his contributions did much to make ' N. & Q.' the success it rapidly became ; beyond this the Dilkes had no interest in the paper until 1872, when Thorns told his friend Francis of his wish to sell it, and, upon the advice of Francis, Sir Charles Dilke bought it. He, how- ever, did not take the interest in it that his grand- father had done, and would say " he could never tell what Notes and Queries was all about " ; however, in recent years he also joined the " band of brothers." The ' D.X.B.,' in its memoir of Thorns, states correctly that ' X. & Q.' was estab- lished by him in 1849.

The memoir of Edward VII., by the editor, occupies sixty-four pages of the volume. It is not necessary to say that Sir Sidney Lee has done his work well, and the material so carefully gathered will be most helpful to any larger bio- graphy. We notice only one slight mistake. The marriage of the Princess Royal took place at St. James's Palace, not at Windsor. It was made an occasion for much rejoicing among the Germans in London, who closed their business houses at 1 o'clock. We saw the newly married couple drive through the park in the afternoon on their way to Windsor amid great enthusiasm. Sir Sidney Lee contributes also the biographies o\ Lady Dilke and Woodfall Ebsworth, both well remembered bv readers of ' X. & Q.'

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JCXE.

MESSRS. JOSKPH BAER & Co. send from -Frank Eort - on - the - Main their Catalogue 569, con- stituting Part II. of their list of Dogmatic. Scholastic, and Apologetic Works belonging to Catholic Theology. The most considerable item of which the price is 5,000m. is the ' Dialogue " of Gregory the Great, " translate de | latin en Erancois Imprime a paris le vingtiesme iour | de mars Mille cinq cens et neuf Pour anthoyne ve- | rard marchant libraire." It is printed on vellum, and has a woodcut of St. Gregory, which, in the only other copy known, that at the Bibliotheque Nationale, has been coloured in such a way as to make it uncertain whether it really is a woodcut at all. This copy, therefore, is of unusual interest. The ' Dialogue ' was the first work of St. Gregory's done into French. Another rare book is Juan Rorg's ' De Patre non Incarnate,' printed in Valentia in 1494 at a private press, from which only one other work is known to have issued. It has blue rubrics, initials painted in gold and colours, and a fine Spanish binding, 1,400m. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church pre- ponderate the works of St. Thomas Aquinas being most largely represented of all; but we noticed also many works by modern scholars.

We have received besides Xo. 2 of this year's Frankfurter Bucherfreund,' the illustrated quarterly catalogue issued by Messrs. Baer. It is a fascinating production, from which we regret that we cannot quote more than a few of the speci- ally remarkable items. Messrs. Baer have acquired the vellum copy of Enguerrand de Monstrelet's ' Croniques ' a masterpiece of Antoine Verard's printing, of which only one other copy on vellum is known which was sold at the Firmin-Didot sale in 1878 ; they offer it for 26,000m. They have a Dumber of old printed books with interesting woodcuts, of which the best are the ' Wittem- berger Heiligtumsbuch,' illustrated by Lucas Cranach the elder, 1509, 1,200m., and the ' Ringer Kunst,' by Fabian von Auerswald, with woodcuts by the younger Cranach, 1539, 2,200m. A fine book of ' Hours ' by Mathias Bonhomme of Lyons, 1548, printed in red and black, has 14 plates by Holbein, which are to be found in no other book, and in no complete copy except this, 2,000m. There is also a copy, offered for 200m., of Sir Thomas More's ' Utopia ' in Latin, together- with the epigrams translated by him from the Greek, and the Epigrams of Erasmus, the second Basle edition, 1518, illustrated with woodcuts and initials and borders by Hans and Ambrose Holbein. Of Hans Springinklee's work we noticed several series, of which the best is a copy of the ' Hortulus Anirue ' of 1519, an edition of which the British Museum has only a defective copy, 500m. There is a goodly number of enter- taining works on aviation, and an interesting collection of books on magic and on games ; while under the heading ' Edelsteine ' we find a copy of the ' Dialogus Creaturarum,' one of the rarest and most original of the Dutch series of woodcut illustrations, printed by Gerard Leeu at Gouda in 1482, 3,600m.

Their Catalogue 602 (II. Auctores Latinil runs to over 4,000 items, and includes transla- tions and critical or elucidatory essays as well as texts. Some of these last are old and rare