Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/188

 180

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. FEB. 26, '98.

of the citie of Florence, that it is a pittie it should be seen save only on Holy-dayes ; as also it was fit that so fair a Citie should have a Case and Cover for it to keep it from wind and weather, so in some sort, this Fabrick may seem to deserve a shelter to secure it." But, alas ! the beauty, grace, and dis- tinction of the loveliest of piles could not keep it from Puritan cannon-balls. One would almost like to believe the lesson contained in the legend that when Lord Brooke, decreeing, in fanatical rage, its destruction, prayed for a sign from heaven that his purpose was grateful, he met with his answer in a bullet fired from the steeple by " dumb" Dyott, and was slain on the day of St. Chad, the name of which saint the cathedral bare. Our wishes are as much sesthetical as devout, but are not the less sincere. The account of the shrine, the edifice, the close, and the city, and the illustrations are alike excellent.

If Lichfield is the loveliest of English cathedrals, Winchester is the largest. It is, indeed, the largest cathedral in Northern Europe. Not wanting is it either in majesty or beauty, though its attractions are of a kind that grow on the worshipper, and do not reveal themselves at first glance. As Hartley Coleridge says of his mistress

You must know her ere to you She doth seem worthy of your love. Like Lichfield, too, Winchester has its legend as well as its history. Did not Waller permit the most outrageous desecration of its shrine ? And when the body of that profane and sensual prince William Rufus, who had expired without the Christian viaticum, was buried in the tower, " attended by many of the nobility, but lamented by few," did not the tower show its resentment of such intrusion by

geant's.

perhaps, a stupidly personal confession to make, but the perusal of the volume led to an immediate reference to the railway guide, and a resolution to revisit the cathedral with Mr. Sergeant's book in our pocket. To us this series of Messrs. Bell offers unending attraction. No guides so cheap, so use- ful, and so trustworthy are to be found to those cathedrals which are our most splendid archi- tectural possession.

Rob Roy. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by A.

Lang. (Nimmo.)

' ROB ROY,' in our thinking the best of the Waverley novels, has been added to the cheap reissue of the "Border" series, with all the notes and plates of the more expensive edition. We have reread the book, as we always do when it comes under our hands, and have also reread Mr. Lang's quite admirable introduction. So real is to us the novel that, wild as the notion seems, we should like to see among the illustrations plans of Frank Osbaldistone's various excursions, and should especially wish to note the spot where he met Di vernon and her father, to our thinking one of the most divine situa- tions in romance.

Who '* Who, 1898. (A. & C. Black.) RECENT additions to this popular and serviceable publication have largely increased its utility. These include over a thousand new biographies, lists of recipients of New Year's honours, of current abbre- viations, of peculiarly pronounced proper names, representative British newspapers, societies learned

and other, University degrees, &c. It will serve, among many purposes, to simplify matters to readers of newspapers and periodicals, and is an indispen- sable adjunct to every collector of books of current reference. We still miss from the biographies the names of J. G. Frazer, the author of The Golden Bough' the most epoch-marking English book of recent times Alfred Nutt, and others.

Masters of Medicine. Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform. By H. Laing Gordon. (Fisher Unwin.)

WE must heartily commend the choice of Sir J. Y. Simpson's life to form the third in this interesting series. John Hunter ranks as the father of sur- gery, William Harvey as the father of physiology, and hence of modern medicine, while Simpson represents almost a beau -ideal of the clinical physician, a great personality in the healing art, whose force of character is shown possibly by nothing so much as by the success of his advocacy of chloroform for producing anaesthesia. His life has been written in a very clear and pleasing fashion by Mr. Gordon, and we may congratulate the editor of " Masters of Medicine " upon the high level of accomplishment which has been reached and kept.

Many readers of ' N. & Q.' will know the name of Simpson as that of no mean antiquary, for, as a hobby and relief from his professional work, he would throw his vast fund of energy into such subjects as the provision of medical officers for the Roman army, leprosy in these islands, ancient sculptures on cave walls, &c. Probably what- ever profession Simpson had entered he would have reached first-rate eminence, but in medicine his energy, enthusiasm, absolute genius, with a great "saving gift of common sense" and an admirable ' ' bedside manner," all told in his favour, and impressed his patients to the uttermost.

ME. FERET'S ' Fulham Old and New,' mentioned ante, p. 160, will be in three volumes, not one, as indicated.

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