Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/287

 9'h s. i, APED, -2, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

279

luded are, we should fancy, Aubrey's ' Brief ' and Evelyn's ' Diary.' In the latter, vol. iv. , Evelyn bewails the loss of "those elegant 1 ypes of Sir H. Saville [the Provost of Eton], which, j fter his decease, were thrown about for children to j lay with." As a beginning the volume is serviceable. j t will need, we fancy, very considerable expansion. { ome of the volumes of which Mr. Harcourt is in search should offer no special difficulty. The ' Reli- quiae Wottonianse' of 1651, to which, on the first page, an asterisk, as the sign of coveted possession, is ] refixed, is not a particularly scarce book. A copy v/as sold last year at Sotheby's, in the H. Spencer Mnith library, for II. 8-s 1. Mr. Harcourt's collection irt destined to a place in the School library. The book is prettily got up.

The Cathedral Church of Peterborough. By the

Rev. W. D. Sweeting, M.A. (Bell & Sons.) The Cathedral Church of ^Norwich. By C. H. B.

Quennell. (Same publishers.)

To Messrs. Bell's admirable " Cathedral Series," in praise of which we have often spoken, have been added two volumes in no way inferior to their pre- decessors. Mr. Sweeting's monograph on the lovely pile of the great Fenland cathedral is, indeea, written in that spirit of close knowledge and ardent affection in which alone such buildings should be depicted. Living for twenty years, as a member of the cathedral foundation, under its shadow, he ! has become saturated with its beauty, which he has i seen under all conditions and aspects. As he writes i he communicates to his readers a portion of his en- thusiasm, and we concede all he demands. With memories of the all but adjacent edifices at Norwich i and Ely, we accept the statement that nowhere in the kingdom is there to be found a finer and more complete Norman church.

Mr. Quennell has, however, a case no less good, although he grants that the situation of Norwich ! Cathedral is not the best conceivable, and holds that the great charm is internal rather than ex- ternal. We are at one with him in admiring the " long nave which is typical of the Norman church, ession path, which recalls the plan of a French athedral," and all the other graces and glories he an advance. In both cases, then, the work is dmirably accomplished, and it is, perhaps, a result f our own tastes that we are disposed to rank Mr. Sweeting's volume as one of the most attractive of ihe series. Who would not be inspired by such a heme ?
 * s glorious apsidal termination encircled by a pro-

James Thomson. By William Bayne. (Oliphant,

Anderson & Ferrier.)

To the "Famous Scots Series," which now com >rises near twenty volumes, Mr. William Bayne las contributed a well and brightly written mono- graph on Thomson. Though a little more favour- able than we have ourselves formed, the estimate advanced of Thomson is supported by sound critics and eminent authorities. The account of his life is picturesque and effective, and the volume may claim to add to the value of an attractive series. Especi ally useful and trustworthy are the portions which show the influence on Thomson's muse of early associations. At the stories which we have read am accepted concerning the want of energy on the part of the poet who wrote 'The Castle of In uolence' Mr. Bayne looks askance, holding them to be exaggerated. He has naturally much to

n the Pope and Thomson controversy which is )eing conducted in our columns. If the writing in Mitford's copy of ' The Seasons ' is neither by Pope \or Thomson, the only reasonable hypothesis, Mr. iayne holds, is that it is that of an amanuensis, ."he credit of the emendations must then be left to ihomson himself. The book is an interesting and acceptable contribution to literature. We have jut one blemish to indicate. Mr. Bayne quotes two ines from Milton concerning

Knights of Logres and of Lyonesse, Tristram and Pelleas and Pellenore. Ve prefer the common and, so far as we know, the mly version :

Lancelot or Pelleas or Pellenore.

The Franks. By Lewis Sergeant. (Fisher Unwin.) THE latest issue of the " Story of the Nations " series consists of Mr. Sergeant's story of ' The Franks, from their Origin as a Confederacy to the Establishment of the Kingdom of France and the Grerman Empire.' As a work the volume is inferior x> none of tnose with which it is associated. It is, lowever, necessarily a record of incessant fighting, through which we learn little concerning the people, except their unending struggle towards sunlight and warmth. As Mr. Sergeant says, the story of the early Franks " is rich in fable, but poor in history," and when we reach the time of Clovis it is a record of horrible murder and treachery. There are, of course, splendidly picturesque epochs, such as that of the battle of Roncesvalfes, the story of which is graphically retold. One chapter in a very scholarly work is to be warmly commended. It is that on "The Characteristics of the Franks," with the account of the more significant features of the Teutonic law before A.D. 500, the institution of wehrgeld and that of the urtheil or ordeal, and such other points as the manumission of slaves. That the origin of the Franks is obscure most arc aware. The origin of the word itself is dubious, although, as Mr. Sergeant points out, there is no word in the French language more monumental in its record of historical origin and successive develop- ments. For its due comprehension the volume demands close study. It will repay the labour involved. Like previous volumes of the same series, it has helpful illustrations.

A Book about Bells. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack,

B.A. (Andrews.)

MR. TYACK has written a pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book concerning bells. Materials for his task are, it is needless to say, ample. To obtain an abundant supply, indeed, he need not go outside the ninety-six completed volumes of ' N. & Q.' Bells constitute an attractive subject, though the general ear with regard to them is still uneducated. When one has the misfortune to live directly opposite a clangorous, tuneless, inharmonious bell, which is always rasping on the ear or disturbing slumber, one is apt to doubt whether bells constitute an unmixed blessing. Not a few of the single bells in London are horribly discordant and require to be suppressed. Mr. Tyack gives, however, an enter- taining and trustworthy history of bells from the earliest times, with chapters on their founders, their dates and names, their decoration, their mottoes, their uses at festivals and to mark epochs, the blessing and cursing of bells, bell-ringers, and many other subjects, with most of which readers of