Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/123

 ii s. vi. A. 3, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The book is " an attempt to make the study of the English cathedrals more interesting," and in this the author has thoroughly succeeded. " Every ancient building has a life-history of its own, and should be studied biographically." Considerable stress is laid throughout the -work on the motives which influenced medieval builders and the reasons for alterations in the structure ; and Mr. Bond tells us that " the more the history of the cathedrals is studied, the more clearly it will be seen that the great majority were forced on the ecclesiastical authori- ties of the day by practical considerations." At Canterbury, for instance " the monastery was large, and the church the seat of the Archbishop ; Lanfranc's short choir had to be replaced by a longer one. Saint worship increased ; pil- grimages increased ; pilgrims came in thousands and tens of thousands. They could not be accommodated in the crypt as before ; room had to be found on the floor of the church for shrines transferred from the crypt ; and aisles had to be constructed round the shrines, that there might be a free passage, and no dangerous block in the stream of pilgrims." In some of the cathedrals attempts were made to improve the lighting, and " sometimes the improvement took the shape of total* destruction of the old gloomy church, and its replacement by a bril- liantly illuminated successor, as at York. Con- nected with this was the mania for an increased acreage of stained glass an aesthetic motive, which, however, had its practical side ; the stained glass justifying itself to the monks and canons as providing a series of lessons in Scripture or Church history."

The cathedrals are described under the following classification : thirteen of the Old Foundation (Pre - Conquest), thirteen of the New Foundation (Pre-Reformation sees); five founded by Henry VIII., and the ten of Modern Foundation, being the cathedrals for the new dioceses formed during the last two reigns. Mr. Bond is full of enthusiasm ; specially is this the case when he writes of Salis- bury, " the very type and picture of the Church of the Prince of Peace." His words of praise would have delighted Gladstone, who had a special admiration for Salisbury. We remember, hearing him in one of his speeches to working-men, advise all who could afford it to go and admire its beauties. Short bibliographies are appended to the notice of each cathedral. The illustrations, which number 200, are beautifully reproduced from photographs.

Miscellanea Genealogica el Heraldica for June, edited by W. Bruce Bannerman (Mitchell Hughes & Clarke), is of special literary interest, as it contains an account of the paternal ancestry of "Walter Savage Landor, with a facsimile of the grant of arms and crest to Walter Lander of Rugeley in 1687. The documents (of which details are given) in support of the pedigree are in the possession of Miss Landor of the Grange, Cannington. The last of them gives particulars of the sale by, Walter Savage Landor, in 1808, of all his paternal estates, these including that which he inherited from the Hardwicke family, of which he was the lineal descendant, and the estates of the Rugeley family, which his great- grandfather Robert had received by the will of

Walter Landor on his marriage with the niece of Walter, viz., Elizabeth Taylor. Some of this Rugeley land was the portion of Katherine- Addams, the wife of Erasmus Launder. The entire sale realized 35,7157. The ' Dictionary of National Biography ' states that he transferred his English estates to his son, and so became entirely dependent on his family. Among the other contents are a confirmation of arms to William Clarke of the city of Cork, and pedigrees of Herries of Mabie and Molony of Cragg,. co. Clare.

THE August Cornhill Magazine is weaker than- usual in the matter of stories, and has deigned to include some decidedly poor verses on the Lincoln Imp ; nor did we rind Canon Rawnsley's ' At Asolo : a Browning Memory,' specially interesting. On the other hand, Mr. Weigall's ' Lower Nubia and the Great Reservoir ' an account of a visit to Phihe during the inundation under its present conditions has some very pleasing pages : and Mr. Kenneth Bell's 'Two Years in a Canadian University' is a really good contribution. It is written freshly and pleasantly, though not with any distinction, and the matter itself is fresh. He has many instructive observations to make, and one or two misconceptions on the part of the English at home to correct. 8ir Henry Lucy is, as usual, well worth reading. He has printed an almost incre- dible indictment of Mr. Chamberlain, which was omitted in Hansard, from the report in Dublin papers of a speech of Parnell's. He gives us also one or two good anecdotes, and an astonishing description of the method of Royal railway travel- ling in Victorian days.

THE Fortnightly Review for August is a very good number. In the way of literature, indeed, it has been excelled. Mr. Francis Gribble's 'The Last Adventures of Mile. Clairon ' is dull, perhaps because- we have had so many adventures of the like sort happening to the like kind of person that they have begun to pall : Mr. Walter Jerrold's ' Centenary of Parody ' is hardly lively enough for its subject : and we found Mr. Baughan's ' Question of Opera,' as opera always is when its English fortunes are- discussed, somewhat depressing. Mr. Alfred Noyes's 'Poems of Edmund GOPSC' is an oddly unequal pro- duction, for which, however, for the sake of it* subject-matter, we have reason to be grateful. On the other hand, the social and quasi - political' articles are for the most part of capital interest. The outstanding one all allowance being made for the known peculiarity of his point of view for vigour and originality of thought is Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt's 'On Lord Kitchenerand his Friends.' Mr. Harbutt Dawson gives us a very thorough and careful comparison between the German and the English schemes of social insurance ; and ' Mr. Alfred Fell6ws has a sound and reasonable article on the reporting of divorce cases. Two other good papers are Dr. A. Smith's on ' The Present Menace of Cholera,' and Mr. J. L. Green's, on the ' Housing of the Agricultural Labourer/ The more acute of our present problems the. Mediterranean question, Tariff Reform, and Home Rule also receive noteworthy treatment. Mr. Brougham Leech writes on the ' Jurisprudence of the Air ' ; and we would draw particular attention, to Mr. Sidney Whitman's weighty contribution on> the ' Anglo-German Mirage.'