Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/494

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2nd s. NO 25., JUNE 21. '5G.

and the fact cannot fail to be of interest in the history of monastic literature. Leland, in his Collectanea (vol.iv. pp.7. 120.), quotes the litles of many works, "Ex quodam registro sive indioe Bibliothecte. Cantuar." but he does not notice any of the volumes I have pointed out. In addition, however, of the proof already given, that the Catalogue in Trinity College, Dublin, really refers to St. Augustine's library at Canterbury, may be mentioned that, in the Old Royal Collection, Bri- tis-h Museum, and in Corpus College, Cambridge, many of the manuscripts from this library are yet existing ; and among the latter will be found (No. 50.) the very volume noticed above, con- taining Wace's Brut, with the romances of Amis and Amelion and Guy de Warewyk, Sfc. Not only do the contents identify it to be the same, but at the end is written, " Liber de librario Sancti Augustini Cantuar." F. MADDEN.

British Museum, May 6.

COMMON-PLACE BOOKS. (1 st S. xii. 366. 478. ; 2 nd S. i. 303.) : A GENERAL LITERARY JNDEX.

Your correspondent, F. C. H., when he explains an improvement upon Locke's method for a com- mon-place book, assigns thirty-five years ago as the date of its first appearance. I beg to observe that the plan of a common-place book here re- ferred to was published in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches, 1792, the author of which John Herbert Harington prefixes the follow- ing useful remarks :

" If a small margin be left in each folio of the book, and the indicative word or head be written on it, it will be conspicuous, although several heads should be included in the same folio; but until it become necessary from there being no more remaining folios wholly blank, it is advisable to appropriate a separate folio to each head, as by this means the several i-ubjects entered are kept more distinct, and any additions may be made to the same head without the trouble of reference to other folios ; for which purpose it is also advantageous to place the folio numbers on the left pages only, leaving the right hand pages for a continuation of the subjects entered on the left or for remarks thereon, until it become necessary to appropriate them to new heads in order to fill the book."

The revival of this plan (perhaps what was in- tended by your correspondent) appeared in a volume published by Taylor and Walton, entitled The Literary Diary ; or Complete Common-Place- Book, with an explanation and an alphabet of two letters on a leaf. More recently Todd's Index Rcrum has been published, intended as a manual to aid the student and the professional man in pre- paring himself for usefulness, with an Introduc- tion illustrating its utility and method of use. Mr. Todd proposes that the common-place book, the very name of which is associated with drudgery and weurisomeness, should be superseded by the

Index, by which any passage may readily be re- called.

What an invaluable common-place book would by degrees be formed if the bibliographical cor- respondents of " N. & Q." would carry into exe- cution the design noticed by the editor in 1 st S. x. 356., of a few gentlemen in the metropolis who had issued a " Preliminary Prospectus of a Society for the compilation of a General Literary Index." Hitherto little or nothing has been effected con- tinuously and cumulatively in this spirit of friendly coalition and united laborious investiga- tion. Let the establishment of peace, then, be the propitious period whence will date the proceedings of British sc, avans who are emulous to follow the example of the Parisian literati, and are ready to work as voluntary conscripts in this pioneering expedition for the common benefit. Should the accompanying inceptive specimen of a supple- ment to Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica be approved, I shall from time to time stimulate others more competent for these laborious investigations, by a continuation of the results of my own very limited observation. Meanwhile, in the hope of eliciting contributions, I subjoin a few subjects out of the specimen which was inserted in the " Preliminary Prospectus of a Society for the Compilation of a General Literary Index." " Fortasse semel insti- tutae inter nos scribendi vices aliquid utilitatis ei$ TO KOLVOV essent allaturae. In this journal a collec- tion of historical facts may be enlivened by a bou- quet of 'graceful expressions, and the more complex departments of knowledge improved by the 'poetry of Science.' I shall only add, that an accumula- tion of this description will be easily transferred, when sufficient materials shall have been collected to form a book, if they be kept separate in the same manner as the " Illustrations of Macaulay," or the still longer series, " Photographic Corre- spondence." BlBHOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

Allegiance, and Oath of Allegiance, that legal tie by which Subjects are bound to their Sove- reign. [The following are not found in Watt,
 * . v. Allegiance."}

" XIV. Controversial Letters between a Gentleman of the Church of England and another of the Church of Rome. By Peter Walsh. Lond., 1674."

" Four Letters, on several subjects, to Persons of Quality. By P. W. 8vo. Lond., 168G."

The fourth letter is an answer to Bp. Barlow's book, intituled, Popery, or the Principles and Posi- tions approved of by the Church of Rome are very dangerous to all, &c. Walsh says .Dodd " was a great stickler for the oath of allegiance: but at the same time a zealous champion for the Catholic faith." He wrote other works on the Jesuits' Loyalty, &c.

"The Great Loyal tv of the Papists to Charles I. 4to. 1673."