Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/286

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12S.V. OCT., 1919.

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Epigraphy : an Introduction to the Study

of Latin Inscriptions. By Sir J. E. Sandys.

50 Illustrations. (Cambridge University Press,

12. 6d. net.)

CLASSICAL students in this country are under a great debt of gratitude to Sir John Sandys for the production of a really excellent manual of Latin Epigraphy. That it is the first book on the subject to be published in England does not surprise us ; for there are still not a few lacunae, in this and kindred subjects yet unfilled. The fact must be admitted that our classical scholars have not been hitherto attracted by the work of the compiler, by the patient spade work to which the Teuton and his slavish imitator the American so willingly devote their labour. The peculiar strength of our native scholarship lies in power of selection and proportion ; and nowhere is this faculty better illustrated than in the book before us. There exist in Germany and in France considerable manuals of Latin Epigraphy ; works, that is, of considerable bulk, of considerable merit in point of learning ; but, as Sir John Sandys is careful to point out, their method is in the true sense of the word preposterous. The information which is of real importance gives place to arid discussions on the cursus honorum and such like, at the best it is relegated to the appendix. It is precisely in arrangement that the value of the present work consists. Sir John Sandys with a just sense of proportion has reversed the customary order, and has given to what is of vital interest the bulk of his book. For in a text book of Epigraphy the inscription, its history, its style, its form is of chief importance, and to this the main chapters are devoted. Academic discussions of the forms of Roman names, of the cursus honorum are here removed from their place of honour, and are found, conveniently compressed, in an appendix. This is as it should be ; for after all the whole is greater than the part.

The lucidity with which the information is imparted is not less admirable than the arrange- ment. It is a forte of the author of the History of Scholarship to pass in review a quantity of facts without loss of grip or perspective. This feat he has accomplished in his latest work ; for it is a considerable feat to compress the essentials of such a subject into little more than three hundred octavo pages. The student of Roman history to whom the study of Roman Epigraphy is of special importance will find the famous Ancyra inscription here set forth not only in full, but with useful commentary ; and the casual reader, now perhaps a little rusty in his classics, will lay down the book with a new insight into the genius of the people who made of the conciseness of their language a means of incomparable expression.

The Natural History of the Child. By Dr.

Courtenay Dunn. (Sampson Low, Marston &

Co., 7s. Gd. net.)

WITH a modesty that disarms criticism the author in his preface declares that this is "a history of childhood which for the greater part has been grubbed up from ancient and scarce books, obscure pamphlets and papers." That our own columns have been useful to Dr. Dunn both his own pen and the pages of the book itself

testify. Gleanings from all the ages and al climes, unconsidered trifles as well as mor< weighty material, bearing on the child, his name his environment, his language, schooling, play religion, and afflictions are gathered here. Or a typical page successive paragraphs introduce such subjects as herrings in the reign o! Edward III., salmon in apprentices' indentures the denial of potatoes to their children b} Puritans, and the prohibition of horseflesh 03 the Pope in the eighth century. The reader's mental agility is somewhat severely tested ir leaping thus from one illustration to another, bul continuous perusal of such juvenilia is nol required. As a storehouse of information it wil be found interesting both to the historian and thf child lover ; the author has also earned the gratitude of the raconteur, who will find mud that is worth remembering noted here. Man 3 instances of curious nomenclature are recorded in the chapter headed ' His Names,' to which we would add another nineteenth-century instance The parents, who were well known in officia circles, decided to call their children after the twelve foundation stones (Rev. xxi. 19, 20.' Beryl, Jasper, Amethyst, Jacinth, and Emerald were all known to the writer, but no more childrer were born to complete the list.

" The Child She Bare." By a Foundling

(Headley Bros., 3s. Qd. net.)

SIMULTANEOUSLY with Dr. Dunn's book we have received '"The Child She Bare."' It does not belong to the class of book in which we should expect our readers to be interested, but much oi it bears so appositely on the volume to which we have been referring that we take the opportunity f mentioning its publication.

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EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of * Notes and Queries' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers "at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancerj Lane, E.C.4.

C. E. STRATTON (Boston, Mass.). Both for- warded.

BALL'S BRIDGE, MR. V. L. OLIVER, E. F. S. (Edinburgh), and " TOUCHET." Forwarded.

CORRIGBNDA. Ante, p. 194, col. 1, 1. 8, foi "nardvaik," &c., read aardvaik (Orycteropui capensis).P. 233, col. 2, 1. 23 from foot, for ' * ures " read pres P. 235, col. 1, 1. 8 from foot, for " West weston " read Westmeston.

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