Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/448

 440

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9> S. I. MAY 28, '98.

be a country place, " There were miles of banks in this neighbourhood lately covered with bluebells and primroses that are now desolate and waste." Alas ! yes. How many spots are there within the range of a Londoner s walk where he may see primroses, bluebells, cowslips, or anemones, or even buttercups and daisies ? In time, perhaps, as beautiful objects get scarcer and scarcer, our school- masters will begin to teach children to practise less barbarous and wanton destruction. Mr. Moss's book we unhesitatingly commend to our readers. It will be useful to some and agreeable to all.

Sonnets on the Sonnet. Compiled by the Rev.

Matthew Russell, S.J. (Longmans & Co.) AN agreeable idea is here agreeably carried out. Wanderers in the most flowery bypaths of literature are familiar with the sportive fashion in which poets have dealt with bonds imposed upon them by the form of sonnet, rondeau, villanelle, oallade, and triolet, the best known being probably Voiture's ' Rondeau on a Rondeau,' beginning

Ma foi, c'est fait de moi, car Isabeau

M'a conjure de lui faire un rondeau. A hundred years earlier Diego Hurtado de Mendoza had written in a similar vein a ' Soneto del Soneto,' and had been followed by Lope de Vega in a kindred composition

Un soneto me manda hacer Violante, which was translated into French by Desmarais, whom Mr. Russell calls, eccentrically, Regnier (sic) Desmarais. These, with English renderings, and with other poems on the sonnet, are included in a volume which the lover of poetry will gladly put upon his shelves. Ample stores nave been placed at Mr. Russell's disposal, English sonnets on the sonnet by Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. J. A. Symonds, Mr. Watts-Dunton, and Mr. Henley being given, in addition to others by Words- worth, Kirke White, Ebenezer Elliot, and other writers. At the end are a few specimens of ron- deaux, triolets, &c. A series of sonnets, on which the editor has drawn, were contributed to the Dublin Monthly in 1876-77 (see 'N. & Q.,' 5 th S. yii. 306). Hood's 'Sonnet to a Sonnet' of Sir Philip Sidney has been rejected as not coming within the scheme of the work. Sonnets on the sonnet by Marino, Nencioni, and Poupo are known to be in existence, but have failed to reward a search in which readers of ' N. & Q.' have participated.

Ambassadors of Commerce. By A. V.Allen. (Fisher

Unwin.)

"THE ROAD," as the country travelled by" bagmen" was once called, is beginning to have a sort of folk- lore of its own. Mr. Allen has collected some information concerning customs now moribund, but once authoritative. It is not complete, not even adequate we could have supplied him with many matters omitted just as curious as those supplied ; but it is good so far as it goes.

WE have received Rrimas, by Gustabo Adolfo Beker, published at Balparaiso by Karlos Kabezon.

MB. AND MRS. TREGASKIS have issued from the Caxton Head one more of their illustrated cata- logues of interesting books.

THERE is no temptation to add anything to the elaborate biographies of Mr. Gladstone that have appeared in the principal English publications.

His name is of frequent occurrence in our pages. An elaborate bibliography of his writings is given 8 th S. ii. 461, 501 ; iii. 1, 41, 135,214, 329, 452; v. 233, 272. We fail, however, to trace his name or his initials to more than one communication to ' N. & Q.,' though it is, of course, possible that he wrote in the early volumes under a pseudonym. The com- munication in question is signed in full, appeared 7 th S. iii. 489, and is on 'The Greater Gods of Olympus.'

THE date of the annual exhibition of the Ex- Libris Society at the Westminster Palace Hotel has been altered to Monday and Tuesday, 13 and 14 June. The annual dinner is fixed for the Monday. Mr. H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A., is President of the Council.

WITH the appearance of Part V. the first volume of the ' English. Dialect Dictionary,' edited by Prof. Joseph Wright and published by Mr. Henry Frowde, becomes complete. This volume, the first part of which was published in July, 1896, contains 17,519 simple and compound words and 2,248 phrases, illustrated by 42,915 quotations, with the exact source from which they have been obtained. There are, in addition, 39,581 references to glossaries, to MS. collections of dialect words, and to other sources, making a total of 82,496 references. The list of voluntary readers, of compilers of imprinted collections of dialect words, and of correspondents shows what large numbers of people have assisted in furnishing material for this great work.

Hfoijr.es

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."

FURZE FAMILY (8 th S. iii. 68, Jan. 28, 1893). We have a letter for ALBA COLUMBA, which will be forwarded on receipt of address.

ERRATA. P. 306, col. 2, 1. 28, for "Vigs" read Uigs.P. 408, col. 2, 1. 14 from bottom, for " Lin- coln " read London.

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