Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/225

 12 s. ii. SEPT. 9, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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European and other Race Origins, By Herbert Bruce Hannay. (Sampson Low & Co., II. Is. net.) THIS work may fairly be called " immense." Immense is the industry to which it testifies ; immense the boldness and the accumulative power of the writer's imagination ; immense the con- fidence with which he presents the results of his mingled learning and imagination as indisputably correct. We fear, nevertheless, that his work will not command the adhesion of many serious scholars. It might, no doubt, be a pleasure to some of us to feel that we had no sort of kinship with the Germans ; it may possibly be to many people as satisfactory as it is wonderful to believe that the ancient Greeks were derived from the Hebrews ; and we know that the lost Atlantis and the theory of the seven root-races connected with that legend have furnished forth speculations which have fascinated many minds. It is among people of that turn of thinking who handle evidence and estimate its value on principles peculiar to themselves, often cleverly enough, but not in correspondence with the accepted principles of ordinary historical study that these pages will find their public. We cannot here discuss the differences between this account of the origins of the European nations and those which ordinary history supports as, at any rate, the least doubt- fully authenticated : such a discussion would far overrun our space ; but we are not speaking ironically when we say that the constructive activity of which this book is the outcome did in itself, perversely though it seemed to us employed, impress us considerably.

A Record of a Mediceval House. (Folkestone,

F. J. Parsons, Is.)

THIS little brochure is well worth an archaeologist's attention. The mediaeval house in question was known during the last period of its existence as Nos. 31 and 33 The Bayle, Folkestone. It had been so greatly altered, and had had so many of its most interesting and characteristic features transformed, obliterated, or at any rate hidden away, that, when it was decided to demolish it, no one realized that to do this was to commit a minor act of vandalism, though in any case a house which has stood since the fourteenth century can put in a strong claim to stand still longer, even apart from questions of beauty, convenience, or instructive archaeological detail. However, it seems the possibility of such a claim in this instance displayed itself too late to be taken advantage of, and we gather that these careful pages, with their numerous illustrations and their minute description, now represent the only mode in which it will survive.

Mr. W. H. Elgar seems to have put together the main part of the work ; with Mr. N. E. Toke to afford assistance in the way of historical notes, and Mr. A. H. Payne and Mr. I. N. T. Vachell in the way of photographs. There are also several good plans and drawings which contribute as much as anything to elucidating the plan of the housi-. As Folkestone of our day knew it, it was a rather dreary place ; but not only in the course of demolition have beautiful old fireplaces, details of fine mouldings, and traces of scrollwork and other ornamentation been discovered, but it became clear that, in the sixteenth century, there

had been a rather charming garden front, with ;\ bay window both to the " bower " on the ground floor and the " best chamber " above it.

The finds on pulling down the house were- neither numerous nor striking, if we except the unearthing of an adult skeleton lying about three feet in front of the kitchen fireplace and about four feet below the level of the kitchen floor. This, we are told, is not an uncommon discovery to make on The Bayle and, indeed, the like has been often recorded in other places but it is none the less arresting to the imagination.

The details of the construction of the house have been very well worked out ; and we should certainly hope for more work of this kind from the author.

The Fortnightly Review contains one article which readers of ' N. & Q.' will like to make a note of as belonging to their own field : Sir Edward Brabropk's careful and abundantly documented justification of the use of the ex*-- pression Lord Chief Justice of England as sound and historical. We do not see how it can easily- be called in question again. Miss Eleanor Hull writes with insight and sympathy on the late Stopford Brooke. We much enjoyed Mrs. Archibald Little's description of Salonica it should prove a really useful piece of popular writing. Miss May Bateman's article on ' War and Pain ' will, we imagine, be welcome to many readers. It is an attempt to state the Catholic theory of suffering, and though it is marred by some lapses into sentimentality, it sets out with eloquence the essential Catholic attitude in regard to the problem. Paul Hyacmthe Loyson's concentrated and fiery lines ' Pour un Chiffon de Papier ' are given us, both in the original and in a translation by Sir J. G. Frazer. For

Pourquoi

Ce tourbillonnement d'arme'es Par mille milliers de milliers ? C'est pour un chiffon de papier, the translator has : Why march embattled millions, to death or victory

sworn ? Why gape yon lanes of carnage by red artillery

torn? For a scrap of paper, for a scrap of paper,.

nothing more !

with the rest to correspond. The only reason we can think of for this is that Sir James Frazer was working to a tune. The rest of the number contains articles on the war and good ones, too : though we think that as much as can be put into words about the patriotism of France has already been done, and we are a little doubtful about Miss Winifred Stephens's account of patrie.

The Nineteenth Century for September keeps us almost without exception strictly to the problems and facts of our own time. Sir Francis Piggott contributes the first instalment of a study entitled 'Belligerent and Neutral from 1750 to 1915,' and into this, it is true, the historical element enters.. Mr. Norman Pearson invites us to contemplate, and more or less to believe in, the existence of f.-iirics, mermaids, and such like creatures aline of thought which will be refreshing and amusing or disturbing according to the reader's temperament and preconceived ideas. For ourselves we incline to think that a priori there is indeed more to be said for than against the reality of "subhuman