Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/288

 280 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. APRIL 5,1913. to have shared his inordinate respect for the written word, and but few of his own letters appear. He affects, not altogether advantageously, the pens of many of his correspondents: with all allowance for the manners and phrases of the time, we find courtesy tending all too easily to run into servility, and exhausting in mere verbosity ink and space that might have been used for news. The letters Concerned with the stirring times of James II. are especially disappointing. What we get is an opportunity for examining the texture of the inconspicuous groundwork of University life. The undergraduate, doins; well to rise at 6 o clock, and working in a " purple cotten •studdying-gown " ; the sequence of his studies ; his Occasional escapades, as when Henry Fleming met with the "sad accident" of being caught by " Mr. Viceehanoellour," with a great many of the " poor children " of Queen's, " att a neighbouring Alehouse takeing fresh Fees of a young man, as they had p^id themselves formerly," and, like the rest, was- given his choice whether he would be whipped or turned out of hii place; local excitements, such as -the visit of the Ambassador of Morocco, the execu- tion of Stephen Colledge, or the founding of the •" elaboratory " for "John Tredeskin's Rarities"— the " Kniok-knackatory," as some called it, the Ashmolean Museum, as it afterwards became— such matters as these, mostly depicted for us bjr the cheerful pen of Thomas Dixon, Henry Fleming's tutor, furnish the staple of interest, the patterns, •so to say, in the web. It is more easy to make MU! the external fashions of life at Oxford than to gather anything of the temper of the University _as a whole during these years—-hardly, perhaps, a •matter for surprise. Dr. Magrath's close, various, and sympathetic •commentary contributes incalculably to the interest •of these documents, and he adds to that a large amount of valuable matter in the way of appendices and additional notes. The labour involved must have been great, and Dr. Magrath is to be con- gratulated on having so completely eliminated from the result the impression of laboriousness. It is perhaps worth mentioning here that he has, after long search, succeeded in finding the list of those who were proposed for the projected " Knights of the Roval Oak," and has included it as Appendix F jii vol. i. THK first paper in The Fortnightly Review for this •month is Mr. Sidney Low's inquiry, 'Is our •Civilization Dying?' He comes to no clear con- clusion — still less suggests any remedy for phenomena tending to disquiet—the practical out- come of the paper seeming to be a hint to historians to study afresh and better ' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' principally by bringing to bear on it our modern knowledge of physiology. Prof. Schiller's able, if somewhat neavy discussion of the working-man's criticisms of Oxford corrects several misconceptions, and ends in approving the •demand for a Royal Commission, if only it be insured that the Commission take for its province the fundamental relations between national life and the legitimate aims of a university as a seat of learning. We are given in 'At the Fair' an example of the work of Rabindranath Tagore, which will quicken desire on the part of those who do not yet know him. Mr. Clement Shorter here makes public some letters of Sorrow's not hitherto printed, and furnishes them with a suitable setting. They are not the only remains of Borrow destined to reach Borrovian admirers under his editorship. Prof. Gerothwohl's study of ' Alfred de Vigny (and some English Poete) on Nature' is concerned mostly with his secondary subject. It is a piece of vigorous -ind picturesque writing—occasionally, in our opinion, in need of pruning down—which may really claini to add something to our awareness of what is implied in the different attitude of individual poets towards Nature. 'Isabella II.'s First Revolution ' has all Mr. Francis Gribble's customary sprightliness and deftness of present- ment. A Journalist contributes some good pages on the problem of 'The Press in War-Time '; and a modern problem on quite another field, the right relation in opera between libretto, voice, and orchestra, is ably handled by Mr. E. A. Baughan. ' The Elizabethan Spirit,' by Mr. G. H. Powell, and ' The Future of Futurism," by Mr. Horace B. Samuel, are happily included in one number as they curiously illustrate one another. The number as a whole is perhaps unusually full of suggestions on a wide range of modern topics of interest. THE April Nineteenth Century begins with Cardi- nal Bourne's eloquently urged proposal for a general military training—not, in the first instance compulsory—of the youth of the country. Mr. Ernest Rhys comes forward as yet another of the expounders of the genius of Rabindra Nath Tagore, of whom this month we are hearing so much. Readers of 'N. & U.' will find matter of great interest in Mr. J. B. Williams's learned re- joinder to Dr. Murray concerning the doings of Cromwell at Drogheda. There are two good papers concerned with Shakespeare and his era: Sir Sidney Lee's account of Arctic exploration at that time, and Sir Edward Sullivan's ' What Shakespeare saw in Nature.' Much of the latter is directed against derogatory remarks on Shake- speare's knowledge of nature made in a recent critical work, and revived from a Quarterly Review of some twenty years ago. Mrs. John Hall's ' The Two Thomas Carlyles' gives a short account of on of the most curious coincidences in literary bio- graphy. Dr. Wiokham Legg's article on ' The Sur- plice as Mass Vestment' in the February number has elicited vigorous replies from Sir Edward Clarke and Mr. W. A. Phillips. Mr. Heckles Willson's ' General Wolfe and Gray's " Elegy"' is woven round the copy of the ' Elegy' which Katherine Lowther gave Wolfe before his leaving for America, which has passed from hand to hand since it was returned to her upon his death, and bears annota- tions in Wolfe's hand. Mr. Edwyn Bevan contri- butes some acute observations on ' The Present Position of Christianity'; and Mr. Alexander Devine a spirited sketch of ' The Achievements and Hopes of the Greek Nation.' JEbttrus to (Comspontonis. WE beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reiison, we dp not print, and to this rule we can make no exception. ALFRED R. SMALE. —The question of Benedict Arnold's burial-place was discussed at 9 S. iii. 69, 152, 271, and a query on the subject appeared in the present volume at p. 49. No information has been elicited. It is probable that the whereabouts of i his grave was purposely concealed.