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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. MAY 14, '98,

and to draw the inference from this that they could not write their names. Most men in England not of the servile class seem to have possessed personal seals in the Plantagenet time, and many an old title-deed and charter yet exists bearing impres- sions of such seals without signatures, when we may be well assured that the persons who executed them had acquired the art of penmanship. ' The Antiquities of Hallamshire' is a review of Mr. Addy s ' Hall of Waltheof,' an interesting local book, which we noticed some time ago. The writer appreciates Mr. Addy's work highly, and in this he is, on the whole, correct. We fear, however, that he has shown too much confidence in some of the author's derivations. We agree with him in think- ing that our local dialects are changing. The accent and pronunciation remain the same, but the old words are dying and giving place to ugly things picked out of the newspapers. The article on
 * A Scottish Border Clan f the Elliots is highly

Sicturesque. The evidence produced of the savagery isplayed in the days of the Border raiders is some- thing which will leave a feeling little short of blank amazement on the minds of those who think of the moss-trooper as a person of whom William of Delo- raine was a type somewhat coarse, perhaps, but with the instincts of a gentleman. The articles on the sixteenth - century Jesuits and on American novels are both interesting.

Gloucestershire Notes and Queries (Phillimore & Co.) is always pleasant and instructive reading. By far the most important section of No. 73 is that devoted to the monumental brasses of the county. When complete it is intended that it shall form a perfect catalogue of these interesting memorials. The descriptions have been prepared with great care, and tney are illustrated in many cases with good engravings. It is our painful duty to note that in several instances portions of figures and their accessories have been made away with in quite recent days. We must direct attention to the figure of A vice Tyndall, of Thornbury, who died in 1571, as it is one of the best illustrations of the female dress of the time which we remember to have seen. At Whittington there is, or rather was, a curious figure of a baby enfolded in swaddling clothes. It is shown as when alive, tightly ban- daged, and with a stiff quilted ruff round its little neck, which must have been a great torment to it during its short term of existence. The account of the Cirencester Society in London is interesting. These local clubs are, we believe, now not uncom- mon ; but this must be among the oldest. Some of its records seem to go back as far as 1692, and from 1701 they form a regular series. The paper on the manor of Stonehouse is good, but too much con- densed. W e wish the writer had not wasted space by explaining what villains, bordars, and servi were. He has no new knowledge to communicate, and such information as he possesses has been retailed over and over again.

MR. LEADER SCOTT'S ' A Christian Cemetery in a Roman Villa,' in the Reliquary and Illustrated Archceologist for April, is of great interest. Few English people, even among those who have spent years in Italy, nave any idea how the soil abounds in Christian antiquities. The discovery concerning which Mr. Leader Scott discourses has been made near Rome. He surmises that the bodies which have been come upon are not only those of Christians, but martyrs for the faith also. That they were Chris-

tians is, we believe, certain ; but that they died for their religion is not, we think, by any means sure. The editor contributes a well - illustrated account of anchors of primitive form, some of which have continued in use to the present day. Mr. H. Elrington sends a paper on the old church of Bosham. We have never seen it ; but from the account he gives it must be a highly interesting structure. May it be spared from further restora- tion !

ON the 5th inst., at the Heralds' College, the eighth annual meeting of the British Record Society was held ; and on the same day and at the sanie place the second annual report of the Parish Register Society was read to the members. In each case the secretary, Mr. E. A. Fry, was able to indicate a gratifying result.

to

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T. SIDNEY GOUDGE.

Woman 's at best a contradiction still.

Pope, ' Moral Essays,' epist. ii. 1. 270. "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." Sterne's * Sentimental Journey,' ' Maria.'

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.

Tennyson, ' (Enone.'

HENRY SMYTH ("The devil was sick"). See 'N. &Q.,'6 th S. ix. 400.

EVADNE.

world as God has made it ! All is beauty.

Browning, ' The Guardian Angel :

a Picture at Fano.'

C. H. S. BIRKDALE ("Index to Eighth Series "). The General Index to the Eighth Series is in the binder's hands.

CORRIGENDUM. P. 379, col. 2, last line but one, for " George III." read Charles HI.

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