Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/348

 340

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. i. AP RIL 23, %

Giovane, and Dosso Dossi, portraits by Tintoretto, Parmigiano, Rembrandt, Albrecht Diirer, Holbein, Titian, and Gainsborough, represent the character of the collection. The historical notices display a wide range of erudition. Indexes supply a variety of cross-references likely to be of great service to the reader and the student. The claims of Mr. Law upon the gratitude of that portion of the public which is interested in art are great. Their extent will be realized when it is taken into account that what in many cases is done by public officials at public expense, is in this case due to individual effort and charge. Should the present venture meet with the support it is entitled to claim, other portions of the royal collections will be dealt with in similar fashion, and issued in companion volumes.

Old Mortality. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by

Andrew Lang. (Nimmo. )

ONE more volume the fifth has been added to the large-type "Border" edition of the Waver ley Novels, published with all the illustrations of the

S'evious edition ten in all and with the whole of r. Lang's notes. It will, like its predecessors, be sure of a welcome, and is just the form in which it may most satisfactorily be perused. The estimate of this work formed by Mr. Lang is greatly in advance of that we ourselves hold. Yielding to few in pur devotion to Scott, we do not put ' Old Mortality ' anywhere near the foremost among his historical novels. Henry Morton is almost the least interesting hero he has painted, and Edith Bellenden fails to hit our fancy. The pictures of the Cameronians and the historical portraits are fine, but the romance that charms us in works such as 'Rob Roy' and ' Redgauntlet ' is absent. Only when Morton returns from abroad do we feel pur- selves stirred as in other works, and the formalities observed by Morton, Claverhouse, and others in their speech annoy and repel. Still, the book is immortal, and in this pleasant shape cannot be other than welcome.

A Bibliography of Skating. By Fred W. Foster.

(Warhurst.)

MR. FOSTER'S bibliography, of which this is prac- tically the fourth edition, is well executed and ample, and appeals warmly to a small class of readers. It reproduces an excellent fifteenth-cen- tury woodcut of skating, with " a spill," is published by subscription, and may be commended to all to whom the subject is of interest.

The Classics for the Million, By Henry Grey.

(Long.)

THIS epitome in English of the Greek and Latin classics has reached its sixteenth thousand. As a popular work it is of great utility, being well executed and trustworthy throughout. Seldom, indeed, has more useful information been condensed into smaller space,

Fannies from French Gardens, Gathered by Henry

Attwell. (George Allen,)

IN this pretty and dainty little volume Prof. Att- well gives us a series of pensees from Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, and Vauvenargues, translated into English, and accompanied by a few useful notes. A short and serviceable preface explains to the general reader the merits of a class pf composition in which the French have always

held the foremost place. A separate volume has been dedicated by the same author, it appears, to Joubert. The maxims of Vauvenargues are little known in this country, but are highly estimated in France. His writings have an effortless grace which greatly commends them, and an almost total absence of cynicism. Prof. Attwell's biographical sketches are not the least remunerative portion of his volume.

The Cathedral. By J.-K. Huysmans. Translated

by Clara Bell. (Kegan Paul & Co.) THOSE who love cathedrals in general and the Cathedral of Chartres in particular will find much in this book to inspirit them. If they are pious Roman Catholics, enamoured of symbolism and mysticism, they may find it even a delight. It is scarcely, however, a book with which we though we come in the first category are called upon to deal. The merits of Huysmans have won general recogni- tion.

MR. CHARLES T. GATTY, F.S.A., will shortly issue ' The Spirit of the Holy Court,' from ' The Holy Court' of Nicolas Caussin, S.J., translated by Sir Thomas Hawkins. The publishers are Simpkin, Marshall & Co.

MR. A. T. QUILLER COUCH, author of ' The Blue Pavilions,' 'The Delectable Duchy,' &c., who is more widely known as " Q," has undertaken to edit a new illustrated sixpenny monthly. It will be called The Cornish Magazine, and will contain fiction, folk-lore, poems, and biographical and descriptive articles of special interest to those acquainted with Cornwall and of general interest to all readers. The magazine will be produced in the style of the leading London magazines, and will make its first appearance on 1 July.

ixr C

We must call special attention to the following notices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspond- ents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication " Duplicate."

CONNIE (" Stamps"). Valueless.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries ' "Advertise- ments and Business Letters to "The Publisher "- at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C,

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print ; and to this rule we can make no exception,

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION BY POST For this Year, Fifty-three tfumbrt.

For Twelve Months 1 6 U

Fpr Six Months, ... ,,. ... > W "