Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/165

 ii s. ix. FEB. 21, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

159

on

Aylioin. By Theodore Watts-Dunton. (Hurst

& Blackett, 6s.)

THIS new edition of ' Aylwin ' will be highly appreciated, for the author has added to the charm of his ever fresh and memorable work by giving illustrations of the scenes depicted. ' Aylwin ' is so well known to our readers that any detailed notice would be superfluous. We can but repeat what has already been said of it : " The words have come ' straight from the heart,' and in consequence go ' straight to the heart.' "

In the Preface Mr. Watts-Dunton refers to the " very picturesque letter " which appeared in ' N. & Q.' of May 3rd, 1902 (9 S. ix. 353), signed C. C. B., in answer to a query by E. W. This he " gives himself the pleasure of quoting, because it describes the writer's ascent of Snow- don (accompanied by a son of my old friend Harry Owen, late of Pen-y-Gwryd) along the path which was almost the same as that taken by Aylwin and Sinfi Lovell, when he saw the same magnificent spectacle that was seen by him."

There are two Appendixes. The first is "In defence of a great and beloved poet, whose cha- racter is delineated in the story." The second contains the key to ' Aylwin ' by Mr. Thomas St. E. Hake contributed to ' N. & Q.' on the 7th of June, 1902 (9 S: ix. 450). Facing the title, in colours, is the portrait of the author from the beautiful painting by Miss H. B. Norris in 1902.

The Puritans in Power : a Study in the History of

the English Church from 1640 to 1660. By G. B.

Tatham. (Cambridge University Press, 7s. 6d.

net.)

AT first sight this careful and well-documented essay strikes one chiefly by what it is not. It makes no attempt to deal with the stormy religious thought of the period, nor yet, except in the briefest way, to show what had led up to the prevailing confusions and antagonisms. Nor, on the other hand, dealing with external matters only, does it vouchsafe much in the way of anecdote, descrip- tion, or those direct personal touches which give life to a history. The point of the book is the illustration of Puritan measures and methods in the treatment of those who were termed, by what was surely an odd impropriety of expression, "delinquents."

To general readers the first two chapters will probably appear the most interesting. They give a concise and soberly balanced account of the state and history of the Church in the earlier years of Charles I., and of the position, at the beginning of the Long Parliament, of the parochial clergy, making clear at the oiitset what is the key to a just understanding of it, that the Puritan move- 'ment sought not for purity of conduct, but for a return to primitive doctrine and worship, so far as, by study and interpretation of Scripture, its adherents conceived that they could get back to these. There follows a chapter on the Sequestration Committees, full of good detail, much of which is drawn from unpublished MSS. in the Walker Collection. The most interesting case is perhaps that of Isaac Allen, Rector of Prestwich, an inventory of whose goods and chattels sequestrated from him in 1645 is given in an appendix. In his account of 'The Regulation of Cambridge ' the author reasonably

devotes a good many paragraphs to the noted case of Sylvester Adams ot Peterhouse, who in 1637 had preached a public sermon on the text " Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, and whose sin& ye retain, they are retained." A most valuable record of the meetings of Heads of Colleges upon this case, and the different voting which took place at them, is printed from the Ada Curice, in the Cam- bridge University Registry as another appendix. On the whole, there seems warrant for considering that the work of the Puritans at Oxford, through the Visitors, was more productive of improvement than their activities at Cambridge. The chapters on the fate of the ejected clergy and on that of the churches give a restrained account of the bare facts, which are, indeed, of themselves sufficiently eloquent. The operations of a man like Dowsing,, who, in Cambridgeshire alone, visited some sixty churches, and has left a businesslike record of the ruin and defacement he and his men inflicted upon them, need no comment ; still less do the miseries of penniless exile, or of detention in- over-crowded gaols.

There is no attempt to sum up the general effect of Puritan rule, but, clearly and conscientiously as- the writer sets out the instances of justice and clemency on the part of the Interim Government, it is plain that his researches into the history of these twenty years go to emphasize the impression, of them as being, in regard to ecclesiastical matters, a period chiefly of ill - considered destruction.

Ancient Memorial Brasses. By Edward T. Beau- mont. (Oxford University Press, 3<s. Qd.) THIS brochure is put forth with the object of popularizing the study of memorial brasses. It may well be of service in that direction, but one cannot help wondering whether there is room just at present Tor another work on brasses.

The author's method is, after having first given, some hints on taking rubbings and preserving them, to classify his subject-matter under ten heads. They are : 1. Brasses Historical ; 2. Knights; 3. Civilians; 4. Dames; 5. Ecclesiastics; 6. Mis- cellaneous ; 7. Emblems ; 8. Inscriptions ; 9. Heraldry ; 10. Architectural Features.

The details of armour, dress, <fec., are treated chronologically, as distinctive of the different periods in which the several memorials were erected. The various points are brought out with clearness, and, on the whole, with accu- racy, but there are certain statements which need revision. For example, on p. 4 we find "De bello campo jacet hie sub marmore Simon fundator de Neweham," which is thus translated: "From the battle-field under this marble lies Simon, founder of Neweham " a curious rendering of the medieval Latin. A passage on p. 7 reads as if Purbeck marble was always used for the matrices of brasses. "Sir Symon Ffelbrygge " (MC), p. 23, bears, not the "royal Standard," but the banner. "William" (should not this be "John"?), Viscount Beaumont, certainly did not bear the elephant, on which his effigy stands, as his crest, for the latter, a lion statant, appears upon the helm above his head. The elephant was probably his badge, and was used by later Beaumonts as a crest, as often happened in the case of badges after the practical use of them had ceased. Abbot Sir Richard Bew- fforeste, p. 116, would doubtless have resented the assertion that he wore a " monk's cloak " ; and the