Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/41

 J2S. IV. FEB., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

35

LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1918.

C N T E N T S. No. 77.

NOTES : Sonthey'a Contributions to 'The Critical Re- view,' 35 P. A. Croke's Seventeenth-Century Account Book, 36 St. Paul's School : Stewards of the Feasts, 3S- Richard Edwards's Correspondence, 39 Shakespeariana, 40 St. Saviour's, Southwark : Churchyard Inscriptions Food Cards, 42 New Portrait of Dante St. Swithin at Balmoral Wolfe's 'Sir John Moore': a Hibernicism Change of Name at Confirmation Thomas De Quincey's Daughter, 43.

QUERIES : Meredith's ' Essay on Comedy': John Stuart Mill Alexander Pope General Grant on Wellington, 44 "Mr. Bassett" of Helperly Lindis River First Barl of Marlborough's Portrait John Miers the Pro- fllist The Loyal Brotherhood, 45 Jerusalem : the Holy Sepulchre Palestine Canal Masonic Heraldry Public- Houses with Names connected with the War Walker of Londonderry: his Descendants Young "Rapehouse," 46 Nahum Tate Burt, Miniature Painter St. Martin de Londres Water-Colour Pictures Horn Book in Brass : Early Infant School T. Whitehead, Rector of Birdbrook Welsh Rivers Parcy Reed of .Troughend, 47 Orator Henley: " Macer "Irishmen in England in the Seven- teenth Century Taxes on Births and Marriages Strug- nell Family Damory Family Mrs. Legh of Lyme East Challow House, Berks Saint and th Devil, 48 "Amelia Mouser "Sir Edward and Sir Francis Walsingbam The Blue Boar at Islington Dame Mary Roe, n4e Gresham ' Enigmas of Luberius" Chess: Castle and Rook -Browning's 'Ring and the Book,' 49 Ryan of Inch, co. Tipperary Aristophanes : Droysen's German Translation Serpent and Eternity Macaulay : Lines written after the Edinburgh Election Dr. John Brown, alias " Bruno " Authors of Quotations Wanted, 50.

KEPLIES: Pickwick: Origin of the Name, 51 Members of the Long Parliament, 52 Rev. John Davies, D.D. Magic Squares in India, 54 Philip Westcott, Portrait Painter Arms on Old Seal Representations of the Blessed Trinity ' Adieu to the Turf: 4th Earl of Abingdon R. Dodd, Marine Painter, 55 'Blackwood' and the Chaldee Manuscript Germans as " Huns " The

. Great Charter, 56 Onion v. Magnet ' Pocahontas ' English Travellers on Vlachs Mary Bolles," Baronetess," 7 Church and the Medical Profession, 53 Picture Frames Pepys of Salisbury Court Tankards with Medals, 59 Byron in Fiction " Heuewerc " Parish Registers Printed Dyde Aiguillettes St. Peter's Finger Landed Gentry, temp. George III. Boreman's Description of Animals ' William Blagrave, 60 Even- ing Dress Arms of England with France-^Sugar : in England "Act of Parliament Clock" Signboards Marriott Family, 61 Authors Wanted, 62.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' A Bookman's Budget.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

SOUTHEY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO 'THE CRITICAL REVIEW.'

IN the Appendix to the ' Life and Corre- spondence of Robert Southey,' Cuthbert Southey refers to his father's well-known article on ' Gebir ' in The Critical Review, and regrets that he cannot obtain a list of his other contributions to that periodical. A little more attentiveness in reading Southey 's letters enables us to identify several other articles, and the list thus ascertained may be augmented by internal

evidence pointing with various degrees of probability to his authorship. To dis- tinguish one literary article in The Critical Review from another may at first sight appear as practicable an undertaking as to discriminate between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It is true that they consist for the most part of colourless summaries with meagre comment, and probably many of Southey' s reviews are of exactly this sort, and therefore unrecognizable in the mass. Yet this very level of indistinction brings into relief reviews which in them- selves have no strikingly brilliant qualities, but become noticeable by traces of a range of reading wider than the common, by the expression of opinions and interests which cannot belong to any random contributor, by touches of style which betray the genuine man of letters and are hopelessly out of the reach of the professional hack. " I must be less of the critic than strict justice may require," Southey wrote to his friend Wynn in 1804, " because niy footmarks are usually to be traced " (' Letters,' ed. Warter, i. 281). The Critical Review did not employ many writers of Southey's calibre.

Southey's attitude toward reviewing was not what we commonly associate with that craft, particularly as it was practised in his day. While professing to hold such work in scorn, he nevertheless made great demands of the reviewer, and observed a scrupulous concern for the rights of the author under review. In his ideal conception it was the business of the critic to have as much knowledge of the subject as the author of the book on which he sat in judgment, and to pass his judgment not only with honesty, but with humanity and generosity as well. The intellectual equipment which he brought to his work consisted of an acquaintance with a very wide range of English litera- ture ; a living interest in the writing of poetry, which he was cultivating ambi- tiously and assiduously ; and the knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese literature and history acquired during his visits to the Peninsula in 1796 and 1800. But it was on his moral virtues as a reviewer that Southey especially prided himself :

" I give praise to a good book, with as much pleasure as the author will receive it ; to a moderate one I am merciful, and that must be very bad indeed that provokes severity." Bobberds, ' Memoir of William Taylor,' i. 266.

He carried this spirit, however, to an extreme of indulgence which must fre- quently have deprived his articles of all character. It became the practice to give