Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/146

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. AUG. 12,

the one hand and that of Wordsworth on the other, with some rather sketchy remarks on <?oleridge's philosophy, and a good account of the rise and wane of his poetical activity. It is an essay which would hardly be grasped by a mind at the stage when ' Christabel ' presented in bits would seem tolerable for it is by no means clearly pointed, and assumes in the reader a fair knowledge of the literature of the period.

The same sort of praise with just that doubtful- ness about it applies to the Notes. These are very good, in that they supply bibliographical and circumstantial details both lavishly and judi- ciously ; but they also combine explanations -suitable for children (e.g., "Lutanist] Player on a lute"; " Swift jug jug] 'Jug '(is the traditional verbal equivalent for the nightingale's ' fast thick warble'"; the note on "beads"; "sovran] Sovereign") with criticisms and allusions to facts of political and literary history which chil- dren are not likely to make much of. While calling attention to felicities and exactness of description, they omit to notice one or two curious slips on the poet's part as, for instance, the lines in ' Youth and Age,' where he is betrayed into saying that "a breathing house .... lightly flashed along." We suppose an adult and not in- experienced reader who is beginning to take to poetry is the person aimed at. From which point of view we should judge the Notes to be somewhat better, and the Introduction somewhat less well calculated, than they appear on an inde- pendent consideration.

The Burlington Magazine for August has for frontispiece a reproduction of Ford Madox Brown s famous landscape, ' An English Autumn Afternoon,' which has recently been presented -to the Birmingham Art Gallery. Mr. Campbell Dodgson contributes an article on the ' Calumny -of Apelles,' by Breu. It was a favourite conven- tion amongst the painters of the Renaissance to attempt to reconstruct the painting of Apelles from the description given by Lucian ; the present example was made by Jorg Breu the elder of Augsburg (d. 1537 ) from the engraving by Mocetto sifter Mantegna's pencil drawing, and was recently presented to the British Museum by Sir Edward Poynter. It is more of a free transcript than a copy of the engraving, which, together with the original drawing, is already in the collection. Mr. W. R. Lethaby, in a first article on ' English Primitives,' is concerned mainly with the work of Master Walter of Colchester, a monk of St. Alban's Abbey in the thirteenth century, " sculptor et pictor incomparabilis," according to Matthew Paris. Mr. Lethaby disagrees with Mr. Page piers of the nave of the church, and considers that the most restrained of the paintings (that on Pier I.) is the earliest, and that on the easternmost hardly earlier than 1280. Reproductions are provided of some of these paintings, and of three beautiful designs of Master Walter from the obituary roll of Lucy, first Prioress of the Holy Cross and St. Mary, Castle Hedingham, Essex. Mr. Lionel Cust continues his ' Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections ' with a discussion of a supposed portrait of Raphael by himself, found hi a neglected state at Windsor during the reign of Edward VII. Mr. Cust is doubtful as to the .authorship of the painting. Some of the works -of the young Franco-Polish sculptor Gaudier
 * about the remains of the paintings on the square

Brzeska, recently killed in action, are discussed and illustrated by Mr. Roger Fry. The portraits of Mr. Asher Wert&eimer and his wife, forming two of the nine family portraits by Mr. Sargent which Mr. Wertheimer lias generously presented to the nation, are reproduced with some notes under the heading ' A Monthly Chronicle.'

THE DE BANCO SEARCH SOCIETY.

The following paragraphs are taken from a letter which we have recently received from Sir George Makgill, Hon. Secretary of the above society :

" May I call your attention to the existence of the De Banco Search Society, which has for many years been carrying on an excellent work in search- ing the early Plea Rolls?

" The early Plea Rolls are quite unindexed and very numerous ; for instance, in the reign of Richard II. (1377-1399) the next reign to be searched there are 80 rolls, each containing some 6,000 or more suits, which represent a grand total of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 surnames, and about halt that number of p_lace-names.

" Every roll will be searched, and not, as hitherto, alternate Terms only ; this will, of course, mean that the reign will take longer to finish, but it will assure every member obtaining a complete list of all references to the name or names entered.

"The subscription, which will last for one year, will now be II. 7*. 6d- for one name. 3{. 13s. 6rf. for three names, and 11. Is. for every additional name entered.

"Reports will be sent out every three months; they will contain the full name and residence of the names subscribers are interested in, with the

full reference to the roll and membrane Those

members wishing to have abstracts or copies of entries can make arrangements with the searcher, who will have the work done while the search is in progress, thus saving the staff of the Public Record Office the unnecessary trouble of continually pro- ducing the same rolls, and the rolls themselves from the wear and tear entailed.

"The work will be in the hands of Miss Dorothy O. Shilton, who has been carrying on the searches for the Society for some years."

The address of the Society is 93-94 Chancery Lane, W.C.

The Athenaeum now appearing monthly, arrange- ments have been made whereby advertisements of posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to publish weekly, may appear in the intervening weeks in ' N. Q.'

to C0msp0ntmts.

CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded to other contributors should put on the top left- hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, BO that the contributor may be readily identified.

MR. E. C. MALAN. Forwarded.

CAPT. H. S. GLADSTONE. Forwarded to MR. ROBERT PIERPOINT. We much regret the misprint ("Galdstone" for Gladstone) in the Index to 12 S. i.