Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/366

 300 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. OCT. 8,1921. treason there emerges a clear statement of results achieved, and a description of the obstacles to their achievement. The book as a whole is not so satisfactory as this portion of it. It may be questioned whether the public career of such a man as Matthew Prior can be separated, as a subject for study, from the circumstances of his private life and from the evidence that can be collected bearing on his personal character. The twenty years preceding the establishment of the House of Hanover in England were ex- ceptionally full of temptations for all persons concerned in political affairs, and these would have pressed most heavily on a man without family influence or private means. The question of Prior's integrity is of the utmost interest, but Mr. Wickham Legg spares little consideration to it. For instance, during Prior's brief Parlia- mentary career he voted for the impeachment of Portland and Halifax for transactions in which he had himself borne a part. Many motives for his conduct were possible, and a true explanation of it might give the key to his position at other critical moments, yet the whole episode is summed up and dismissed in a page and a half at the end of chap. vi. The book is valuable in design and in detail from the scholar's point of view, but it should be described as a record rather than as a study. We must achieve nearer knowledge of Prior himself the adventurer, with his degraded habits, his brilliant literary gifts, and that personal charm which won and held for him the friendship of so many great and noble persons if we would fix the value of his intentions and his influence in public affairs. Calendar of Customs, Superstitions, Weather- lore, Popular Sayings and Important Events connected ivith the County of Somerset. With Forewood and Index by W. G. Willis Watson. THIS Calendar has been reprinted from The Somerset County Herald, simply using the news- paper type in which the articles were first set. The result is a somewhat unusual book- but not an unpleasing one. The matter which it con- tains, though disjointedly presented a " book of days" must almost of necessity be disjointed includes a good deal of out-of-the-way lore. JNot much of this will be new to expert collectors of folk-lore ; and many of the historical matters dealt with are well known to every one who reads at all ; but even the knowing will pick up details with some freshness of interest. Thus the present writer has to confess to not knowing that the colour blue and the " harebell " are sacred to St. George, and that the " harebell,' being in bloom on his day, is worn in honour of him. But the flower intended cannot be Cam- panula rotundifolia, for which the name " harebell " is commonly used. Presumably it is the wild hyacinth, which the ' E.D.D.' puts first as intended by the name, but which we have never actually heard so called. The story of the " Cuckoo-penners," told in the vernacular, is decidedly entertaining. Thai of Mrs. Leakey's ghost, whom Sir Walter Scott dragged back from oblivion, stops just where we should have welcomed further information for an account of psychical research, as conducted in the seventeenth century by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and Sir Robert Philipps, holds at least equal promise of amusement with the vagaries of the ghost's self. Weather-lore, in- cluding notices of great storms, eclipses and earth- quakes, abounds ; and the eclipses, in particular, though the descriptions are brief, come out very "mpressively. Somersetshire ought certainly to buy up this reprint, partly for the variety of good things col- lected in it ; partly in order to encourage enthu- siasts to further research, and spur the indifferent to take an interest in their county. The Publisher of ' N. & Q.' has arranged to re- print the issue of June 5, 1920, and subscribers who are short of this part may obtain copies (ready shortly) at Id. each, post free. Arrangements are also being made to reprint the issue of April, 1917, which for a long time past has been unobtainable. Jlottcetf to EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' ' Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' N. & Q.,'. Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses im- mediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found. WHEN sending a letter to be forwarded to another contributor correspondents are requested to put in the top left-hand corner of the envelope the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which the letter refers. PRINCE LEE Boo (12 S. is. 207, 256). MR. J. ARDAGH writes : " I am greatly obliged to MK. MORGAN for his interesting note. My published inscriptions were kindly verified by the rector." MAZINGARBE ('Life of Mrs. Sherwood,' ante, p. 251). A. W. writes: " Mazingarbe can linn 1 this volume as a gift." [Letter will be forwarded. Ed. 'N. & Q.'] CORRIGENDA (' A Webster-Middleton Play,' ante, pp. 181, 202, 225). On p. 181, the passn^v defining Webster's share in the play should read as follows : " Webster wrote (I think) practically the whole of Act I., Act II., sc. i., Act III., sc. i., Act IV., sc. i.,the dialogue between Knavesby and his wife at the beginning of Act IV., sc. ii., Act V., sc. i. and ii., and collaborated with Middleton in the final scene, V. iii." On p. 225, the heading " Act V., sc. ii.," should be inserted immediately before the reference to p. 490 of Dyce's edition: and, on p. 226, for " Act V. sc. ii.," read " AH V ., sc. iii." H. DUGDALE SYKES.