Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/268

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. SK. -u, 1912.

on the whole, well done. As to the causes and antecedent conditions of an heroic age especially in so far as his remarks are concerned with the Homeric poems we think he is inclined to treat his material somewhat too literally, and to give too little weight to the inventive genius of the unknown poet as a vera causa of some of the rela- tions between groups and characters, and even of some of the incidents connected with manners and customs, which meet us there. Even where he does not actually invent, a poet so accom- plished in his art as Homer is hardly likely to be a passive reflector of his own time or of tradition, but is apt to seek out and celebrate the exceptional, to make most of what is most uncommon, and that the rather if his audience is comparatively unsophisticated.

The Anthropological History of Europe : being the Rhind Lectures for 1891, revised to Date. By John Beddoe, M.D. (Paisley, Alexander Gardner. )

T?OR those who are interested in anthropology these well-known lectures require no more than a few words to draw attention to the fact that they have been reprinted in a revised form. No new work of corresponding convenience has yet been produced to take their place, though a good deal of matter on the anthropological history of Europe has been accumulated during the last twenty years. This volume preserves for us not only a part of the writer's learning, but also something of his kindly humour, and his power of making his learning appear to his audience a Jiving thing. It seems a pity that no little word about him is included in what, we suppose, must be the last book he worked at. It is also a pity that there is no index.

MESSRS. LONGMANS have reprinted from the works of Thomas Hill Green his Four Lectures on the English Revolution. Mr. Kenneth Bell in an Introductory Note states that they " ha.ve Ibeen republished because it was felt that, buried in Vol. III. of Green's collected works, they were almost inaccessible to that growing public which is interested in history." The low price at which they are now published (one shilling) brings them within the reach of all.

THE September National Review has remitted nothing of the customary pungency of its remarks upon the ways of the present Government. There are four articles of which the interest is not political Mrs. Huth Jackson's ' Modern Science and Eternal Truths ' ; ' The Evolution of American Picture Collecting,' by Mr. W. Roberts ; ' The Minor Novelist,' by a Minor Novelist ; and Mr. Weyland Keene's sketch ' In Search of Silence.' This last is a careful bit of artistic writing, fresh and expressive, albeit here and there it reads as if it were also a bit of practice, and we would enter a protest against the use, amid choice words anfl. phrases, of " materialise " a snowflake, the writer has it, " materialised out of the mist." ' The Minor Novelist ' gives us the chapters and verses of his own special share in a widely recognized grievance, of which the actual details are perhaps hardly well enough, known. For thirteen years' hard labour, after the publication of fourteen novels, three of which were serialized, he obtained 646Z. Comment seems superfluous.

Mrs. Huth Jackson's paper deals with eugenics, and with the attitude of women as it was, as it is, as it ought to be towards marriage and motherhood. The history of American picture- collecting is one of the most interesting strands in the web of modern industry. Alongside of it, it would be instructive to have a full account of the modern movement to develope an indigenous art, which is running strongly in rivalry with the American appreciation of European achieve- ment.

MR. ALFRED MARKS, whose death was announced last week, was a genial and learned contributor to 'N. & Q.,' especially on matters concerning anti- quarian London. His exact scholarship is seen in his latest book ' Tyburn Tree : its History and Annals' (1908). 'Who killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey?' (1905) was typical of his interest in historical mysteries and obscure questions of the olden time. There are notes by him in the Tenth Series on ' Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered,' and ' Hanging alive in Chains.' He was the brother of Stacy Marks the Academician, and showed his interest in art by writing on the collaboration of the Van Eycks. He leaves a widow who has written several novels.

ta Cormpontents.

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COL. MAINWARING. Forwarded to R. S. B.

D. O. We would suggest a reference to the ' N.E.D.'

YORKSHIRE. William Chetwynd may be found in the ' D.N.B.'

J. P. Capt. Martin's article on ' Navigation ' in ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica ' gives the information desired.

TANNITSOW. The description of the crest is hardly sufficient for identification. Perhaps a drawing could be supplied.

LIEUT.-COL. RICHARDSON. This subject has been well discussed in commentaries on the Gospels. We would suggest a reference to Swete's ' St. Mark ' and Plummer's ' St. Luke.'