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actually at the present day coincide with the boundary line between the counties of Nottingham and Derby. Dr. Mutschmann's book, besides its abundance of sound information, its clearness and precision of statement, and its thoroughness of handling, has a certain neatness about its style, and, where opportunity is afforded, a certain turn of zest and humour, which make it rather an exceptionally pleasant work of its kind.

Mr. St. Clair Baddeley in dealing with Glouces- tershire place-names had one or two hard nuts to crack. We are glad that the contributions to our columns of Mr. Mayhew and Dr. Krueger have been of service to him in elucidating the meaning of "Meend," a word to which he has devoted much labour, the results of which he has set out in a careful discussion of forms and of evidence. " Coin," " Aust," " Cotteswold," and " Sencley " or " St. Chloe " may be mentioned as difficult words which have been dealt with as satisfactorily as the material at hand permitted. Mr. Baddeley has done well to include in his collection a con- siderable number of the names which appear in ancient documents, but have vanished from ordinary use. It is worth noting, as against the statement sometimes found to the effect that in the South- West " Thorpes " are unknown, that our author has found no fewer than seventeen examples of this suffix in Gloucestershire. Their situation, however, close together between the Cotteswolds and the Severn, would seem to point to their derivation from some abnormal, i.e. in this case Scandinavian, origin.

Archceologia sEliana ; or, Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Third Series. Vol. X. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Society of Antiquaries.) THIS tenth volume of the third series of ' Archaeo- logia Juliana ' is one of more than usual import- ance, for it is the special centenary volume of a Society that was formed in 1813. It has fallen to the lot of Mr. J. Crawford Hodgson to write, after an interesting fashion, the history of this celebrated antiquarian association, which has admittedly for many years past taken the lead of all other provincial societies of a like character. The Antiquarian Society of Newcastle-upon- Tyne w y as started on 23 January, 1813, by seven- teen gentleman who met in the Long Room of " Loftus Inn" at Newcastle, on the invitation of Mr. John Ball, a bookseller of the town, with the object of promoting inquiries into antiquities in general, but more especially in the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham. The Mayor and Corporation granted the new-born Society the use of a room, the King's Chamber, in the Castle, where a meeting was first held in November, 1813 ; but after a few years the room proved to be unsuitable and too small, and the Society sought other quarters. Eventually, how- ever, at a time when railway operations further jeopardized the partially ruined castle, the Society not only succeeded in gaining possession of it, but, with the assistance of the Corporation, undertook a careful repair of its valuable Norman features. The thirty-sixth anniversary meeting was held within the restored castle in February, 1849, and the various collections and property which the Society had accumulated were placed within its walls. Since that date the Society has uninterruptedly rested in this historic and ideal abode.

The museum, within the castle, was formally opened in 1885 ; it is rich in objects of interest and value illustrative of all periods, but is mainly confined to discoveries in the northern counties. Mr. R. O. Heslop supplies in these pages notes- as to its gradual development. Mr. R. Blair contributes similar notes as to the extensive and* valuable library pertaining to the Society. Both these gentlemen have served in past years, with much distinction, as secretaries to the Society.

A chronological list of members from 1813 to> 1913 is supplied, from which we gather that the Society is in full vigour, twenty-five recruits having been gained in 1912. To this is added an alpha- betical list of members for the like period.

Brief biographies of the chief contributors to the Society's literature form the bulk of the volume, which extends to about 400 small quarto pages. The most useful portion of the book to the mem- bers and to antiquaries in general is the classi- fied catalogue of papers printed in ' Archaeologia JEliana ' during the century of its existence. The pages are brightened by an excellently produced series of portraits of more or less distin- guished members, including five successive Dukes, of Northumberland.

QUERIES relating to the birthplace of the Duke^ of Berwick, to the Saint - Graal, consecration, crosses, and the age at which great men tend to- produce their masterpieces are all discussed in recent numbers of L'Intermediaire. In reply to a question regarding the credibility of Hanni- bal's having dissolved rocks with vinegar, a correspondent sends an interesting note to the effect that some years ago the cure of Montgaillard in the Foix country succeeded in making a much- needed road a hundred fathoms long and twelve- feet wide by the same means, for it appears that r if rocks are heated red by fire and then deluged with vinegar, the vinegar flows into calcined fissures opened in the stone, and softens it till it may easily be broken. Other correspondents- discuss the true condition of the French peasants in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several of them bringing forward evidence to demonstrate that, generally speaking, the tillers of the soil were far from being the oppressed helots often described by biased historians. Though it can be scarcely doubted that in certain districts extreme degradation and misery existed, in other parts of France energetic yeomen and toft-holders formed a considerable part of the population, as still existing wills and other legal documents prove.

MR. WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK writes : " Any readers of ' N. & Q.' who were interested in your review (11 S. viii. 400) of my pamphlet ' Glasgow Cross, with a Suggestion as to the Origin of Scottish Market Crosses,' may be glad to know of a new and valuable contribution to the subject by Comte Goblet d'Alviella, entitled ' Les Perrons de la Wallonie et les Market- Crosses de 1'Ecosse ' (Brussels, Hayez, rue de Louvain 112, 1914). The paper was read to the Royal Academy of Belgium on 11 Nov., 1913. This is quite the most learned contribution to a difficult subject, in which the author gives his. reasons for believing with me that the Perrons and the so - called Crosses have a ^common, origin with the Rolandsaulen."