Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/163

 us. vn. FEB. 22, lorn] XOTES AND QUERIES.

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from Washington's ' Farewell Address ' ; the gravity and magisterial rhythms of Sir Matthew Hale's Letter of Counsel to his children ; the over delectably uttered wisdom of Fuller ; and UK- sonorous and persuasive sentences in which Rishop Fisher contrasts the energies of hunters and of professed Christians. The choice of letters Gray, Southey, Fitzgerald, Cowper, and others is particularly happy ; perhaps the most perfect is that well-known one of Gay's relating the death of two lovers by lightning, in that, with a complete setting forth of the matter, there is absent from it the redundancy of words which i s, perhaps, the most common failing throughout the whole domain of prose -a failing which, only recently, writers deriving more or less from the school of Stevenson try, it appeal's, to correct by reducing the length and sonority of rhythms, aiid attending closely to the visual images they mean to evoke.

Not the least fascinating use of this anthology might be to serve as basis for comparisons between verse and prose, especially in regard to the exactness and brevity with which ideas are rendered in each. The perusal, even of these passages of majestic and disciplined composition, rather inclines one anew to suspect that, for a severe exactness, the palm must go to verse.

Church Bells of England. By II. B. Walters.

(Frowde. )

IT would be well if a copy of this manual had its place with the registers in every parish church of the country. As a book of reference it will i-ertainly be welcomed by many people inclined to study the gradual evolution of campanology in England. The Bibliography printed imme- diately after the Table of Contents fortunately includes many foreign works of authority, among them F. Uldall's excellent account of the mediaeval church bells of Denmark, ' Danmarks Middel- alderlige Kirkeklokker.' The body of the book itself contains, among other chapters, a descrip- tion of the earliest bells known, and a treatise on the processes relating to the founding and hanging of bells, great and small. The dedica- tions, inscriptions, and decorations stamped on them also receive due attention, while the special uses of sanetus and sacring bells are clearly ill-scribed. Mediaeval, post-Reformation, and quite modern foundries are all considered in turn, the fine work produced by the bell-casters who make the best use of the scientific and artistic knowledge now available receiving its right meed of praise. A chapter might, perhaps, have been advantageously devoted to the folk- lore of bells. Although it must be confessed 1 hat Great Britain seems far poorer in ancient legends and bell-customs than the Continent, an interesting collection of traditions illustrated by foreign parallels could yet be gathered. Bells \\-hich have sunk underground, where they may le heard ringing, are known in England, Germany, and France. Another widely spread story which needs studying tells of church bells hidden in water to preserve them from an ap- proaching enemy, or lost in it by mishap while being carried to a church. Sometimes bells are believed to have taken refuge in a lake by their o\m miraculous action. According to Lobineau's ' Vie des Saints de Bretagne,' the miraculous bell of St. Pol of Leon, which is preserved in the

treasury of the cathedral, was found in the maw of an enormous fish. This bell must resemble the oldest Irish specimens. It is quadrangular, and not cast, but beaten out by the hammer, the metal being described as " red copper mixed with much silver." The story that deer, or cattle, have been known to dig up bells with their horns, or boars to root them up with their tusks, seems to be unknown in the British Islands, or at least to be unrecorded.

When a second edition of the ' Church Bells of England ' appears, the modern bells at Carlton- in-Cleveland might be mentioned. That village is happy in possessing, among others, a Strangers' Bell, a Children's Bell, a Village Bell, arid a Wheat Bell, all with appropriate inscriptions, that on the Wheat Bell being "A thank-offering^ for good wheat years, 1905-06."

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. -FEBRUARY.

MR. BLACKWELL of Oxford has sent us a Catalogue of Books of Antiquarian, Historical, and Literary Interest, which come chiefly from the library of the late Miss Toulmin Smith. We noticed a considerable number of useful works, among which we may mention the following : S. G. Morton's ' Crania Americana, or a Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America, with an Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species,' illustrated, 1839, 31. 15s. ; a first edition of Bacon's 'Advancement of Learn- ing,' " At London, printed for Henrie Tomes and are to be Sold at his Shop at Graies Inne Gate in Holborne," 1605, 151. 15s. ; a Collection of Acts of Parliament, Petitions, Proclamations, &c., mostly in black-letter, and not without specimens that are now rare, 21. 2s. ; a collection, offered for 21. 15s., of 45 rare folio tracts dealing with historical events from 1624 to 1696 ; a Scra,p- book containing hundreds of views, portraits, water-colour and pencil drawings, and other like objects, some of them of great interest, 11. Is. ; a collection of papers and treatises by or connected with Prynne ; a collection of papers connected with the trial of the- Seven Bishops, 4Z. 4s. ; and an original MS. of "The Laws, Ordinances, and Constitutions of the- Burrough Town of St. Albans, in the County of Hartford* with a translation into English of the Town's Charters." On the first page is written " The first part of this book was written some- years passed by my uncle, and finished by me, June 25, 1804. T. Baskerfeild, Mayor, Sept., 1803."

MESSRS. MAGGS'S Catalogue 303 is devoted to Autograph Letters and MSS. But little short of 800 items are here set out, many of them, as usual, of the first interest. In the way of MSS. other than letters we noticed an unpublished poem of Charlotte Bronte's running to 78 lines, entitled, apparently, ' My,' and written in the minute handwriting of her earlier work. The date is 17 Nov., 1837, the price 30?. A MS. by Steven- son of ' A Mile and a Bittock,' a poem included in ' Underwoods,' which here differs somewhat from the published version, is offered for 681. ; and there is an unpublished autograph poem b\ Swinburne, addressed to John Nichol, and dated 1881, for which 45?. is asked. There are several