Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/435

 ii s. vi. NOV. 2, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

359

on looks.

The Fascination of Books. By Joseph Shaylor. (Simpkin, Marshall & Co.)

MR. SHAYLOR has written a fascinating book on a fascinating subject. Of course there are plenty of anecdotes about book-collectors, but book-collecting does not always mean culture. We fear that some people still exist who look upon books as furniture. We know an instance of a wealthy man who, much to the delight of a friend of ours, asked him to fill his shelves with books handsomely bound. Our friend asked whether he preferred books bound in russia or turkey. The reply was patriotic : " All the books are to be bound in England."

Among Mr. Shaylor's glimpses of the past we come upon the old Trade Dinners, when the opportunity was taken of introducing to the booksellers the author whose works they were selling. These sale dinners have now (ii 'appeared. We believe that Bentleys were the last publishers to have one.

The history of Christmas books is always interesting, and we are glad to hear that they " are still a growing institution." The first Christmas annual was entitled ' Forget Me Not,' and was published in 1823. " It had at one time a sale of 18,000 copies, but it was discontinued in 1848." ' Friendship's Offering ' was begun in 1824. This passed into the hands of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., and under the superintendence of T. K. Hervey, at one time editor of The Athe- nceum, had a large circulation. In 1828 there was issued ' The Gem,' under the editorship of Tom Hood. In this his poem, ' The Dream of Eugene Aram,' first appeared. No annual was more looked for than Tom Hood's ' Comic Annual.' This was started in 1830, and continued its versatile career for nine years. There was often trouble through the dilatoriness of Hood. On one occasion, when the ' Annual ' was to appear on Lord Mayor's Day, he wrote a humorous apology, which appeared in The Athenceum, to the effect that he " objected to his pages being kicked by the City Marshals." The Christmas of 1843 was memorable for the publication of Dickens's immortal ' Christmas Carol' ; and another great event in Christmas literature took place in 1850, when Dickens began a series of Christmas issues in connexion with Household Words, which was continued with All the Year Round. The last was entitled ' No Thoroughfare," and, on account of its being dramatized, far exceeded in sale all the previous ones.

Mr. Shaylor has amusing tales to tell of the mistakes made by booksellers. Gladstone must have been somewhat surprised when, having ordered a history of Corfu, he received instead a copy of Doran's history of Court fools.

In reference to unbiased reviews one is sur- prised to find that "it has been suggested that, in order to obtain a perfectly independent criticism, every editor or reviewer should purchase the book to be noticed." Whoever suggested this must have a very low opinion of the British Press to suppose that a review can be purchased by the mere presentation of a copy of the work. When The Saturday Review was started, a notification was given that no books were to be sent for

review ; but this rule had soon to be abandoned, as buying a book for the purpose of criticizing it- is a very different matter from its being sent for that purpose, and libel actions were threatened.

Mr Shaylor has much that is of interest to tell us about ' Hymns, Hymn- Writers, and Hymn- books.' It appears that the number of collections of hymns in use in the Church of England has been reduced to about six, ' Hymns Ancient and Modern ' being in the largest demand, closely followed by Bickersteth's ' Hymnal Companion.' The first edition of the latter was published in 1870, and in six years it was adopted by more than five thousand churches.

We think that Mr. Shaylor is mistaken in his statement that " the various Nonconformist bodies have also greatly concentrated the number of collections used in their various churches." We know of no such indication. The Congrega- tionalists use most widely ' The Congregational Hymnbook,' but they have also a book, edited by Garrett Horder, entitled ' Worship Song.' The Wesleyans have their own book, full of the hymns of the Wesleys. The Baptists have ' The Baptist Church Hymnal, Psalms and Hymns,' and at the Metropolitan Tabernacle they have ' Our Own Hymnbook.' The Unitarians have also their own collection of hymns.

In the chapter ' Reprints and their Headers ' Mr. Shaylor supplies some interesting figures in regard to sales. The new editions of Shakespeare furnish the most striking of these. " The Temple Shakespeare," begun in 1894, sold annually 250,000 volumes, while in addition some 100,000 volumes were sent to America every year ; and the publishers of " The Ellen Terry Midget Edition " received an order for 10,000 volumes. A sticking development in " sixpennies " has been the reprinting by the Rationalist Press of controversial and scientific works. Of these nearly a million have been sold, including over 100,000 of Haeckel's ' Riddle of the Universe.' We understand that there is also an enormous sale of these works at a penny.

Our thanks are due to Mr. Shaylor for a book that will find a lasting place on our shelves.

THE October Quarterly Review has seven or eight literary and historical articles, interesting both as to matter and manner. One of the most striking is Prof. Haverfield's discussion of ' Roman History since Mommsen,' where we are glad to see a protest against the arbitrary use of sources which is becom- ing common with modern historians, presumably in a desperate endeavour to show themselves original. Mr. Tennant's 'Isolation of Theology' is also a pro- test well reasoned and justified ^directed against that modern " i nationalism " which, withdrawing Christian theology from connexion with philosophy and history, is in danger of issuing in the ancient error of the " double truth." Sir Lewis Dibdin's article on ' Roman Canon Law in England ' is as it could hardly fail to be a weighty contribution to one of the most " actual " of modern controver- sies. Mr. Lubbock on 'The Poetry of Robert Browning ' has not escaped the pitfalls which lie in the way of those who try to sum up a poet : he is prolix, paradoxical, a little arbitrary, not a little self-conscious ; but if he provokes impatience, he also provokes thought and suggests points of view. Mr. Algernon Cecil's 'Two Seventeenth-Century Men of Action ' (Ormonde and Sandwich) is written