Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/315

 12 s. HI. MAY. 1917.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

309

not verify the production before sending it to ' N. & Q.,' whose readers will, I hope, forgive the lapse, especially as it has been the means of producing SIR WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK'S very interesting reply.

S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN, F.S.A.(Scot.). Walsall.

LIBRARY OF THE LATE WILLIAM WATKIN EDWARD WYNNE OF PENIARTH, MERIONETH- SHIRE (12 S. iii. 230, 283). The Peniarth Welsh MSS., containing the celebrated Hengwrt MSS., after the death of Wynne's brother passed by sale into the Williams collection, and are now (together with Lord Macclesfield's Welsh MSS.) permanently housed in the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth.

I fancy that the English MSS. from the same collection still belong to the Wynne family, and Mr. Carleton Brown in his ' Register of English Verse,' published last autumn, is evidently under the same im- pression. It would be worth while to find out. SEYMOUR DE RICCI.

DERBY RAM (12 S. iii. 70, 154). It may be of interest to record that the ballad was popular with the freshmen at Harvard College in the early sixties of the last cen- tury. It was sung with much enthusiasm, with a chorus or refrain of :

O ! a hunkey, dunkey Derby Bam,

A hunkey, dunkey day. O ! a hunkey. dunkey Derby Bam, A hunkey, dunkey day.

The words of the song, I grieve to say, were decidedly coarse.

CHARLES E. STRATTON. Boston, Mass.

Miss MITFORD AND HER WORKS (12 S. iii. 110). The edition of 'Our Village' illustrated by C. O. Murray (not C. A.

avenue of trees depicted on p. 24 is close- to Miss Mit ford's cottage.

The original first edition of ' Our Village ' was in five volumes, dated 1824-32. Portions or all of the book had appeared serially in The Toady's Magazine previously. Except this first edition I cannot recall any other complete edition besides the one issued by H. G. Bonn in 1852, and still sold by his successors, Bell & Sons. A good copy of the Bohn issue of 1852 is the one I have,

and prefer to all others, of the book are nearlv

The recent issues all garbled and

abridged. The prettiest is that issued by MacmiJlan, with Hugh Thomson's illustra- tions, and a very valuable introduction by Lady Ritchie. There was a large - paper issue of this book with many coloured plates by Alfred Rawlings, who as a local artist is as well acquainted with Three Mile Cross (Miss Mit ford's village) as is any one.

Besides the authorities already quoted, I would refer to J. T. Fields's ' Yesterdays

with Miss

Authors,' which contains many of Mit ford's letters. Jame? Pavn's

' Literary Recollections ' has a charming picture of a visit to the old lady. In. The English Illustrated Magazine, vol. xiv., there is an article well illustrated upon Miss Mitford's village, with a note upon, ' Relics.' For a personal touch I recom- mend W. J. Roberta's ' Life and Friend- ships of Mary Russell Mitford ' (1913), chiefly because of the illustrations. The frontispiece to this book is " My Cottage in ' Our Village.' " This is taken from an old lithograph, published by Lovejoy of Read- ing, while Miss Mitford was in residence- Other illustrations are " Miss Mitford's Cottage at Three Mile Cross as it is to-day [1913],with the sign of the Swan Inn on the- one side, andBrownlow's shop on the other" ; " Miss Mitford's Cottage at Swallowfield "

Murray) and W. H. J. Boot was first issued [she removed there later after leaving

in 1879 by Sampson Low & Co. It was reissued cheaper and smaller, but with the same illustrations, in 1891 (also by Sampson Low & Co.). The book could " easily be obtained second-hand. This edition of '' Our Village ' is by no means complete. In the beginning of the volume it is stated : "... .the selections in this volume consist principally of those portions specified in the original edition of 1824 as ' Walks in the Country.' " There is a certain topo- graphical value in the illustrations of local scenery. For instance, the full-page picture by Boot facing p. 18 is evidently a bit of Riseley Common, about two miles from where Miss Mitford lived; and the fine

Three Mile Cross], (1.) from a contemporary engraving, (2) as in 1913 from a photo- graph; and "Swallowfield Churchyard, where Miss Mitford lies buried."

There* are a large number of Miss Mit- ford's letters in the Free Library at Reading. The village of Three Mile Cross, which I am well acquainted with, remains much the- same.now as in Miss Mitford's day.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

The edition of selections from Miss Mitford's ' Our Village,' comprised in the- section ' Walks in the Country,' illustrated by C. O. Murray and W. J. Boot, was pub- lished in 1879' (preface dated 1878), 2Ls_