Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/162

 NOTES AND QUERIES. t n s. vn. FK,, 22, 1013.

JOHN TILL. RECTOR or HAYES (US. vii. 89). The short notice of John Till in The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcvii. pt. i. p. 375, states that lie was of Cains Coll., Cambridge, LL..B. 1768, and was presented to Hayes in 1777 by the then Rector of Orpington. He \\as also presented to Orpington in 1821 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, then Manners Sutton. He died 13. Feb., 1827. Allibone irives a " Rev. John Till " as the author of a ; Syllabic Guide to the True Pronuncia- tion of the French Language,' 1820, but I cannot say whether this was by John Till of Hayes. ROLAND AUSTIN.

Public Library, Gloucester.

" MOBBYE -HOUSE " (11 S. VH. 67).

Though the meaning is not given, an example of the use of the word in the form " mory " in which it appears in the Offenham Baptismal Register in 1559 will be found on p. 584 of vol. ii. of Nares's * Glossary ' (ed. 1901). A. C. C.

\VRECK OF THE ROYAL GEORGE (11 S. vi. 110, 176, 374, 436, 496; vii. 36, 77, 113). A block of oak which formed a portion of the above vessel is preserved in the Guildhall Museum of London Antiquities.

JOHN ARDAGH.

10, Richmond Road, Drumcondra, Dublin.

DOLLS BURIED IN A SCOTTISH CAVE (11 S. vii. 89). In 1836 several small dolls, fully dressed and enclosed in beautifully made miniature coffins, were discovered in a hole in Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh. A de- scription of them, with illustrations, will be found in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, vol. xxxvi. p. 460. No satisfactory solution of the history of these extraordinary figures has ever been given. They seem to be a unique find and of most obscure origin. J. B. P.

THE SEVEN OARS AT HENLEY (US. vii. 108). Fletcher Norton. Menzies was captain of the Oxford University crew 1841-2 ; he rowed stroke- oar in the last race rowed over the old course from Westminster Bridge to Putney, 1842. He was born 8 March, 1819; was Secretary of Highland and Agricultural Society at Edinburgh 1866 to 1892; and died at Edinburgh, 25 March, 1905. There is a letter from him to the author in J. E. Morgan's 'University Oars' (1873).

FREDERIC BOASE.

[G, F. R. 13. (who refers to Mr. C. M. Pitman's n-vised edition of the ' Record of the University Boat-Race '), and F. de H. L. also thanked for re- plies.]

0n

The Pageant of English Prose. Edited by R. M.

Leonard. (Frowde.)

THIS is one of the most delightful of recent anthologies. From 325 writers the editor has made a collection of 500 pieces, which, for greater convenience of reference, he arranges alphabetic- ally, furnishing a list in chronological order, with dates, at the beginning of the book. At the end is a series of notes, compiled chiefly from remarks made on the several writers by modern critics.

Of necessity the majority of the 325 names are represented by no more than one extract apiece r and it is interesting to observe to which names and to which period, the favour of greater cxpansion is allotted. Burke, in this, comes first, with no fewer than seven passages from his works ; Macaulay, next after him, has six r and Bacon, Jeremy Taylor, Addison, Swift, and Lamb have five each. It is natural enough, even desirable perhaps, that the emphasis should be thus disposed, but we could have wished that room had been made for some half-dozen other writers, both of earlier and later date. The curious and characteristically English charm of the fourteenth-century mystics is hinted at rather than conveyed by a single meagre, and not specially happy, quotation from Mother Julian of Norwich, Walter Hilton and Richard Rolle suffering entire neglect. This we regretted, but without astonishment. We were, however, astonished, and that not a little, when, turning- to see which page had been chosen from ' Wuther- ing Heights,' we found that Emily Bronte was ignored. Here are Aphra Behn, Mrs. Rad- cliffe, Mrs. Inchbald, and Miss Mitford and Emily Bronte is left out ! Yet * Wuthering Heights ' as a mere matter of fine and pure

Erose is surely the best thing any Englishwoman as yet done, and equals, if it does not surpass, in our opinion, any of the fiction, whether by men or women, which appears in this volume. ' Wuthering Heights ' being omitted, it was, perhaps, natural that Charlotte Bronte's Preface to it in our opinion the most perfectly beautiful and touching thing she ever wrote should have been omitted also, in favour of a scene from ' Shirley,' which, with all its vigour and charm,. is too far-fetched to render the authentic classic note.

To complain but a little more, why, if Black- more, with his somewhat too crudely metrical ' Lorna Doone,' finds admission, is this denied to Short-house and ' John Inglesant ' ? And why is there no word from the wizard pen of Lafcadio< Ileam ?

One or two more such questions in particular with regard to the choice of the morsels offered come down to the tip of our pen, but to indulge them would not only be ungracious, but also create a false impression. We have found this book a mine of pleasures now rejoicing in the pleasant juxtaposition of familiar passages and names, and now glad to meet a writer whose work is less familiar. We liked the pithy pas- sage from Asgill ; the illuminating criticism of Gibbon's style from Bagehot ; the witty pas- sage from an article by Sydney Smith in The Edinburgh Rcvieiv, here headed ' Travellers' Tales ' ; the strong and eloquent paragraphs