Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/117

 i2js. v. APRIL, 1919.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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MacLoughlin, King of Ireland. During the reign of Edward VI. the abbey and its possessions were granted to Sir Nicholas Bagnal, and the episcopal jurisdiction consequently devolved upon him and his descendants, the Earls of Kilmorey. The way in which proper names are sometimes dis- guised by the inclusion of the final letter of a preceding word has been illustrated recently in 4 N. & Q.' with reference to St. Ninian (see ante, pp. 7, 53). Newry affords another example. The place was named " lubhar ceann tragha," the yew tree at the strandhead, from a yew which had' been planted by St. Patrick. This was shortened, and pronounced " Yure," which was converted into " Newry " through the assimilation of the definite article " an."

The bulk of the volume consists of the index to the Dromore wills, which is followed by a cross index to the many aliases that occur in them. The Newry and Mourne wills complete the volume, which is excellently printed, though in the Contents the Dromore cross index should be p. 161. The wills at all three depositories have been indexed down to 1858, the date of the extinction of the jurisdictions.

The Beasts, Birds, and Bees of Virgil : a Natural- ist's Handbook to the ' Georgics.' By Thomas Fletcher Boyds. (Oxford, Blackwell, 4s. 6d. net.)

Virgil and Isaiah : a Study of the ' Pollio,' with Translations, Notes, and Appendices. (Same author and publisher, 5s. net.) THE first of these little books is a second edition. W see this with pleasure because the work makes no inconsiderable contribution to that new tradition in the use and enjoyment of the Latin and Greek classics with which we have before now expressed our satisfaction. Mr. Boyds brings together much scattered wisdom and folk- lore bearing on the subjects Virgil treats of in the ' Georgics ' ; and it may count as an addi- tional merit that he does not introduce his material merely as literary or picturesque illus- tration, but discusses the details of Virgil's practical counsels from the practical point of view. No one would expect to find the poet right in a majority of points ; it is pleasant to find him so in more than one might have expected. Any lover of Virgil and the country will enjoy this book, despite a certain, perhaps inevitable, scrappiness ; but we would specially recommend it to any one whose business it is to introduce boys to the ' Georgics.'

In ' Virgil and Isaiah ' Mr. Boyds gives us a study of the fourth Eclogue, in which he discusses most of the opinions which have been put for- ward as to its meaning, and draws a careful and amply illustrated parallel between it and the great prophecy in Isaiah of the Prince with the Four Names treating not only of the actual contents of the two, but also of their historical setting, and of the greater or less verification which history has seemed to furnish them with. This forms a study which is worth some attention, even if one does not wholly agree with all Mr. Boyds's views. On Virgil's " prophetic " insight, for example, we think he proves less convincing than he might have been if he had recognized in his argument that the gift of poetry is of itself a kind of " illumination," which, seeing deep into things as they are below ^phenomena is

at least apt for vision of truths which are, but are not yet within ordinary human cognizance. If this view of the poetic gift is sound, it would actually be surprising if there were not poets in the ancient world who witness, in some sort, to Christianity.

A most interesting feature of the book consists of the translations of the Eclogue done first into English hexameters, and then into Biblical English. The latter, as to its rendering of the richness, unction, and special character of Eng- lish Biblical prose, is eminently successful ; and it is almost equally striking in the distance from Virgil to which it seems to throw his meaning in itself so carefully and accurately brought out.

THE Bibliographical Society of Ireland was inaugurated at a meeting held on March 1 in the Public Library, Great Brunswick Street, Dublin. The objects of the Society are :

(a) The promotion and encouragement of Irish bibliographical studies and researches.

(6) The printing of works connected with Irish bibliography.

(c) The formation of an Irish Bibliographical Library.

The annual subscription, for the present, is 5s. Meetings will be held for hearing papers and for exhibitions of bibliographical rarities. Mr. E. B. McClintock Dix has been elected chairman ; and the hon. secretary is Mr. Wm. MacArthur, 79 Talbot Street, Dublin, from whom further particulars can be obtained.

BOOKSELLEBS' CATALOGUES.

MESSRS. GLAISHER'S March Catalogue of Publishers' Bemainders comprises a number of well-illustrated books of travel in France, Italy, India, China, and other parts of the globe, as well as various biographies. Among works more nearly related to subjects special to ' N. & Q.' may be named Major Tremearne's ' The Ban of the Bori ' (7s. Qd.), describing demons and demon- dancing in Africa, and Hausa superstitions and customs ; Dorothy Senior's ' Some Old English Worthies ' (2s. 6d.), containing ' The History of George a Green,' ' The Famous History of Friar Bacon,' &c. ; and Lewis Melville's ' Berry Papers ' (5s.), founded on the correspondence of Horace Walpole's friends Mary and Agnes Berry.

MESSRS. MAGGS send another of their ex- cellently produced catalogues no. 375, ' En- graved Portraits, Decorative Subjects, Original Drawings, Napoleonic Caricatures, Naval and Military Prints.' The frontispiece, a reproduction of Val. Green's mezzotint ' British Naval Victors,' consists of portraits of Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, and Nelson (42L). Other illustrations include Frances Kemble, mezzotint by J. Jones after Beynolds (Q31.) ; Master Lambton, mezzotint by Cousins after Lawrence (42L 10s.) ; and Lady Bushout and her daughter, stipple engraving by T. Burke after Angelica KauEman (1251.). J. B. Smith's mezzotint of Napoleon after Appiani is 75Z. ; and among the Napoleonic caricatures is a collection of 78 coloured plates by Cruikshank, Bo-vylandson, and others, handsomely bound by Riviere in crimson morocco, 84Z. Actors and actresses are represented by Garrick and Edmund