Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/267

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AR. 26,'98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

259

Ai gid MS., preserved in the library of the Royal Iri In Academy, was once regarded as a relic from tin earliest days of Irish Christianity. It is now held that, instead of belonging to the period of St. Patrick, there are no criteria by which it can coi fidently be ascribed to a date earlier than circa A.I. 800. Manuscripts are, of course, with some shew of reason, ascribed to the sixth century. Af-er A.D. 1200 no new departure or advance is to be traced in any branch of Celtic decorative art. Space fails us to do justice to the value of this opening volume of an important series. We have done, indeed, no more than glean a few statements which, detached from the context and occupying no place as a portion of an argument, have little special value or interest. The numerous illustra- tions are finely executed, and the general character of the volume is creditable, the more so as the

minting, which is wonderfully free from errors, has

>een done in Stockholm.

A Roll of the Graduates of the University of Glasgoiv. By W. Innes Addison. (Glasgow, MacLehose & Sons.)

JMn. INNES ADDISON, who is assistant to the Clerk bf Senate in the University of Glasgow, takes up phe task of supplying a roll of the graduates at the Vear. At the period at which his labours begin l;he 'Munimenta Alme Uniyersitatis Glasguensis,' published in 1854 by the Maitland Club under the iditorship of Mr. Cosmo Innes, were given chrono- logical lists of the laureati, or graduates, from the foundation of the university in 1450-51 to the close >f 1727. Subsequent graduations have been chrp- licled with exemplary care in special registers or in he minute-books. From these has been extracted >n alphabetical roll of the graduates, to which has >een added, as an afterthought, short biographical iotes, when such can be found. The work thus btained does to a great extent for Glasgow what Ir. Foster has done for Oxford in his 'Alumni )xonienses.' Much trouble has been necessitated i obtaining biographical particulars, slight as these re ; but the cases in which inquiry has been wholly nremunerative are, happily, few. Not that the Jniyersity itself had been at much pains in pre- 3rving records of its children, except when honorary jegrees had been conferred or ordinary degrees ranted under special conditions. Various sources f information such as the ' Dictionary of National j'iography,' the ' Fasti Ecclesise Scoticanse,' Grant's Ohurch Almanac,' and many others have been con- ilted, as have such other sources as directories, igisters, and tombstones. Personal communica- ons in the case of the later graduates have not been anting. The result is a work of great interest > Scottish genealogists, and not without suggestion ordinary readers who care to see how far afield Ive of enterprise, the spirit of adventure, the psire for sunshine, and the pursuit of advancement ill drive the Scot. In the list of names of no >ecial significance to Southron readers we come bon some exceptions, such as Alfred Ainger, the esent Master of the Temple, Sir Archibald Alison, .e Right Hon. Arthur James Balfour, M.P., the ight Hon. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, the Earl Beaconsfield, the Right Hon. John Bright, Thomas impbell the poet, Sir Richard Owen, and many hers. In the case of more than one of the political [mes the appearance is, of course, due to the fact
 * )lose of 1727, and continues it until the end of last
 * hose of a predecessor in his task conclude. In

f the bearer having been elected Lord Rector and received an honorary degree. The accuracy of the volume we take upon trust. It furnishes occasion x>r no kind of criticism. The announcement of its appearance is all for which it calls.

JZtolia: its Geography, Topography, and Antiquities.

By W. J. Woodhouse, M.A. (Oxford, Clarendon

Press.)

A BOOK like this is the best justification of the endowment of research. It is only the trained eye and well-equipped mind of the scholar that could discern and interpret the antiquarian remains and topographical details, often slight and obscure, which make classical soil eloquent. Moreover, these lingering vestiges of the past are every day growing more faint and indistinct. Mr. Woodhouse here presents in luxurious form the results of the investigations which he conducted in Greece as Craven Fellow of Oxford, some of which he has already embodied in his Conington Prize Essay.

A high authority has warned us that to under- stand a poet's songs we must be familiar with the poet's land ; and it is no less true that to follow intelligently the history of Thucydides and Poly- bius, we must have some acquaintance with the country where it was enacted. Topography is the natural handmaid of Clio. "If we want to under- stand the ancients," says Prof. Ramsay, " and espe- cially the Greeks, we must breathe the same air that they did, and saturate ourselves with the same scenery and the same nature that wrought upon them." This Mr. Woodhouse enables us in some measure to do. Following in the wake of Col. Leake and M. Bazin, who had already traversed the same ground, and having Strabo and Pausanias always at his elbow, he carefully corrects their errors and supplies their deficiencies, while paying a high tribute to the general accuracy of our own countryman. His own details are extremely minute and conscientious ; the maps are exemplarily clear and full ; the views, reproduced from pnotographs, are both abundant and artistic. The special object which the author had in view was to examine the physical conditions and the natural relations under which the towns of ^Etolia stood, and to trace the influence of these factors upon the part played in history by their inhabitants ; but he confesses that he has been disappointed in the amount of literary and epigraphic material which has been brought to light. His critical chapter on the identification of Thermon in connexion with Philip's march a point hitherto much contested deserves the attention of classical scholars. He gives reasons for believing that its site was that of the modern Palaiobazari, and brings in evidence an inscription discovered upon the spot which he thinks likely to have been dedicated in the capital of the League.

We should have been glad if the dryness of topographical details had been relieved by an occasional glance at the manners, customs, and beliefs of the people with whom the author was in daily contact; but with the exception of a little bit of folk-lore given on p. 181, we find none of that human interest which gives such a charm to the researches of Mr. Rodd and Mr. Tozer in some of the same territory.

The Antiquary, 1897. (Stock.)

WE have received this handsome volume, and can only award it praise. There is no need for us to give it a lengthy notice, as month by month we have