Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/105

 12 S. III. FEB. 3, 1911

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Dr. Arbuthnot in a duel. His will, dated Feb. 5, 1765, was proved at London, June 12, 1777, by his relict Ann, to whom he left everything. Elizabeth Ragg was a witness.

G. W. WRIGLEY 258 Victoria Park Road, N.E.

' THE DIABOLIAD ' (12 S. iii. 48)." Per- son's conviction," as related by H. in his interesting note, seems to be confirmed by tradition, for, according to the ' D.X.B.,' William Combe served for some time as a common soldier.

There are many references to ' The Diaboliad ' in the back numbers of ' N. & Q.' HORACE BLEACKLEY.

To PLAY "CROOKERN" (12 S. ii. 470; iii. 16). There is a Crokern Tor in the ancient Duchy of Cornwall, " where the traveller may still see concentric tiers of seats hewn out of the rock," and where, prob- ably, was formerly held in the open air the Stannary Court of the Duchy ; v. Gough's ' Camden,' vol. i. pp. 43, 49 ; Murray, ' Handbook of Devon,' p. 95 ; Taylor, ' Words and Places,' p. 206. Query, is Crokern from the Welsh gragan, to speak aloud (hence the English "creak" and "croak," and "crake")? Compare Greek Kpojw, Latin crocire, and Sanskrit kruc. Vide Whitaker, ' History of Manchester,' vol; ii. p. 313, Diefenbach, ' Celtics,' Glossary No. 184 ; idem, ' Vergleichendes Worter- buch,' vol. ii. p. 591. J. W. FAWCETT,

Consett, co. Durham.

THOMAS GRAY (12 S. ii. 285, 399, 526 ; iii. 32). MR. LAWRENCE E. TANNER is saddling the wrong horse in crediting me with the mistake re absence of Gray memo- rials at Cambridge. If he will re-read my note at the penultimate reference, he will discover that it is Mr. Gosse who is respon- sible for the error. Has he ever rectified it ? My share in the culpability lies solely in the brief comment passed on facts as existing in 1882, not on those since, unknown to me, extant. However, I greatly rejoice to learn that Gray's memory at Cambridge has at last been vindicated even by such slight memorials as a bust and a portrait. But is it not somewhat far-fetched to include the poet's MSS. amongst such, being as they are simply his own monumentum cere peren- nius? Nor can I regard the fire-escape and water-vat incidents as belonging to quite the same category incidents known long before 1882. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

0n Uooka,

Cambridge Manuals. 87, The Evolution of Corn- age. By George Macdonald. 88, The Old Grammar Schools. By Foster Watson. 89 r The Printed Book. By Harry G. Aldis. (Cam- bridge, University Press, Is. 3d. net each.)

WE greatly like this series. The outlines of big subjects of which it consists are in general pro- jected in good proportion and firmly executed ; they avoid successfully alike dryness, padding, and insistence on picturesque detail at the expense of the scheme as a whole. Each is well provided with bibliography and index, arid contains more or fewer well-chosen illustrations. One feature we should like to see added, a modest* one, but extremely helpful to any person attack- ing a subject for the first time and it is to such we suppose this series to be addressed ; we- mean a tabular statement of the matters dealt with, which, exceptis excipiendis, should, we- think, be chronological.

Mr. Macdonald gives us a satisfactory sum- mary of the stages in the invention of coinage,, first taking its raison d'etre, and then dealing in separate chapters with the material used, the methods of production, types, legends, and so on. The illustrations are well selected, but might have been better arranged ; and in general, for an inexperienced reader, the historical and geo- graphical outline is somewhat too lightly sketched in, and also inadequately connected up. Other- wise, as a first initiation into a fascinating subject, this is a little book it would be hard to improve upon. Wisely, we think, the writer has left almost entirely on one side the purely artistic aspect of coins, and has no more than hinted here and there at questions of rarity and the present value of ancient examples.

Prof. Foster Watson's ' Old Grammar Schools '' begins with a short preface, which is yet of weighty significance, and will, we hope, be read and pondered. He suggests that the Grammar Schools flourished as they did in the seventeenth century because the curriculum was planned with a view to subserving a definite educational aim. This aim a thorough grasp of the old Hebrew Covenant and its implications, the training of all the educated persons of the nation in Puritan theology was to be furthered by a knowledge of the " holy languages," " quarum, as Erasmus had written a century before, to- Martin Dorp, " cognitio tantum adfert mo- menti ad divinarum scientiam litterarum, ut mihi sane videatur vehementer impudens earum rudem theologi nomen sibi vindicare." While that ideal remained, the teaching of the classics justified itself ; when it failed, the education once related to it failed. And, for lack of a similar definite ideal to which it can be referred, the modified and extended curriculum of the day- just over has also in great measure failed.

If the Grammar School proper and, in some ways, at its best belongs to Puritan times, it was the outcome of educational work through a various and deeply interesting past; and the first chapters of this book on the Chantry and other media3val schools, on the schools as affected by the Renascence, on the warrior prelates and the great Tudor merchants as founders, though necessarily rather brief, are not the least valuable