Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/45

 n s. vii. JAX. 11, MS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Burlington Magazine begins 1913 with articles of more than visual interest. Mr. Whitley after long and laborious search has discovered, principally in the journals of the time, but also in some MS. notes, references to the lectures on Perspective given by Turner as professor, and here for the first time all the information available is set out. Yet another discovery of high interest is communicated by Mr. W. Grant Keith in ' Some Hitherto Unknown Drawings by Inigo Jones.' These had lain perdu s among the architectural drawings which James Gibbs, upon his death in 1754, bequeathed to the Bad- cliffe at Oxford, and which had not hitherto been closely examined, being supposed to be all his own work. Mr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, in dealing with ' Indian Images with Many Arms,' has a subject full of curious and prof ound interest, upon which every lover of art must desire better instruction. While grateful to him for what he here furnishes, we wish he had taken up more space in imparting knowledge, and less in some- what peevish castigations and assertions which, however true, he leaves unsupported. Mr. Clive Bell's paper on ' Post-Impressionism and Esthetics ' is a delightful piece of writing, chiefly valuable for the end paragraphs, without which one term of his explanation of the essential in art, " significant form," would carry no sense. The mystical relation between the real and the visible which it is the raison d'etre of art to illus- trate needs teaching, and is, perhaps, most effectively taught in this fugitive way, as if a mere addendum to a main theme. Three good series of papers are carried on to their second number : Dr. Schubring's study of cassoni panels in English private collections ; M. A. J. Wauters's ' Boger van der Weyden ' ; and the very interest- ing and well-illustrated discussion of the 'Psy- chostasis in Christian Art,' by Mary Phillips Perry.

WE have received with pleasure from Mr. Hilary Jenkinson of the Public Becord Office, Hon. Secretary of the Surrey Archaeological Society, the announcement that it is proposed to found a Surrey Becord Society. The promoters of the scheme urge with justice that, from the point of view both of security and utility, the printing and indexing of the wealth of docu- mentary evidence amassed alike in the Public Becord Office and in private hands is an imme- diate and important need. Experience has already proved how much excellent service, supplementary to the Government work of the publication of records, may be privately rendered by the common local interest of the several counties ; and the fine list of documents proposed for publication if the Society should be formed justifies our expecting great things from Surrey in this matter.

The Society will be based upon a 10s. yearly subscription (with an entrance fee of 10.s.), with, in return, at least one volume annually. If a sufficient number of names are sent in as willing to subscribe, a public meeting will be held in London to organize the Society. We are glad to note that a good preliminary list has already been obtained.

WE learn with pleasure that our correspondent Dr. J. WMllcock is about to publish a ' Life of Sir Henry Vane the Younger ' in this, the ter- centenary year of his hero's birth. The younger

Vane, though perhaps a shadowy figure to the general reader, is one well worth close study r whether the point of view be that of an interest in the circumstances of his life or of an interest in the curiosities of human nature. We under- stand that the volume which runs to some 400 pp. includes as an appendix documents, now printed for the first time, relating to an obscure plot in 1659 to entrap Charles II.

REFERRING to the review of PROF. SKEAT'S ' Science of Etymology,' which appeared at p. 498- of our last volume, our correspondent Mr. ALFREI> ANSCOMBE kindly writes to inform us that PROF. SKEAT was engaged in the preparation of a volume on ' The Place-Names of Suffolk ' also. On May 18, inviting from MR. ANSCOMBE an expression of opinion on " Hoxne," he wrote : " I am doing all the Suffolk place-names, 469 in number. I have got oiit at least 450 with almost complete safety, or with very high probability. Only a few are in doubt." On May 22 he wrote that he was finishing his * Science of Etymology,' and with characteristic humour he said he hoped there was not a single new statement in the book !

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JANUARY. CATALOGUE No. 202, sent us by Mr. William Brown of Edinburgh, contains "a number of interesting first editions, among them Butler'* ' Hudibras,' all the three parts as they succer- sively appeared in 1663, 1664, 1678, 25Z. ; Car- lyle's ' Sartor Besartus,' as it was first privately- reprinted for his friends from Fraser's Magazine,, 1834, 161. 16s. ; Cowper's two volumes of ' Poems,' the first published in 1782, the second, containing. ' The Task,' ' John Gilpin,' and other works, in. 1785, III. 15s. ; Keats's 'Lamia,' ' Isabella,' &c. r 1820, in the original boards and uncut, having its paper label on the back and the eight pages of advertisements, 58Z. 10s. ; and the first edition of Florio's ' Montaigne,' 1603, 681. Blair's ' Grave,' with the twelve etchings from Blake's designs (1808), and Blake's illustrations of the Book of Job (1825), from Sir Theodore Martin's library,, are to be sold together for 30Z. There are eight books with Cruikshank illustrations : the most costly, if not in itself the most interesting, is the Egan's ' Life in London,' for which 651. is asked. Nisbet's ' System of Heraldry ' in the 1816 edition- costs 61. 158. ; and the ' Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to 1616,' edited, with translation and notes, by J. O'Donovan, 1856, 121. 12s. We noticed two attractive sets of Japanese drawings, collections and designs for tailoring or dress- making on twenty-three double leaves of thin paper, intended evidently for embroidery, and with the arfcst's name on every page. They belong apparently to the eighteenth century, and for the better the price is 42s., for the other 30s. We may mention also a copy of Mr. Forbes's edition of the ancient Irish ' Missale Drum- mondiense,' 11. 5s. ; a copy of Dresser and Sharpe's ' History of the Birds of Europe,' including all the species inhabiting the Western Palaearctic Begion, 1871-96, 57Z. 10s. ; Pergolesi's ' Original Designs of Vases, Figures, <fcc.,' 1777-92, 21Z. ; and a copy of Coryat's ' Crudities,' 1776, 31. 15s. At the end of the Catalogue is a list of engraved portraits which contains several very interesting-, items.