Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/47

. I. JAN. 8, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

39

,bbey) a succinct account of the Augustinian rule. Those who want more will find it in the admirable olume, recently edited by Mr. J. W. Clark, on Jarnwell Priory. Little remains of the former >eauty of the ecclesiastical buildings at Thornton ; mt of domestic work, the splendid gate-house .onjectured, with some reason, to be the abbot's odging (in 1382 a licence was granted "de nova lomo desuper et juxta pprtam Abbatise Kernel- anda") is an early and fine specimen of Perpen- licular brickwork. Curiously enough, the name of 'college" clings to the abbey still, although its refoundation by Henry VIII. only lasted for six years. It is now in the liberal hands of the Earl af Yarborough. We hope Mr. Boyle will be en- couraged in his project of publishing the chronicle of the abbey, to which he alludes in his preface.

IN the Fortnightly Mr. Arthur Symons deals with ' The Problem of Gerard de Nerval ' without aiding very greatly towards its solution. There is, in fact, no solution except madness. Those who read the stories contained in his strangely misnamed 'Filles du Feu,' which include his masterpiece, ' Sylvie,'and others on which his reputation subsists, will find there, even, how his thoughts continually brood upon suicide. Nerval has, however, an in- teresting individuality, and the story of his loves and his fate would Dear retelling. Mr. Gilbert Coleridge has a short and interesting paper on * My Friend Robin,' the most of a gentleman of all birds, in singing whose praise man will never weary. His song constitutes at this time the charm of our green lanes near London, and his bright, gallant iorm may, with some observation, be descried among the briar leaves which his coat exactly matches in colour. Mr. Percy Osborn gives some good translations from Philostratus. M. A. Filon continues his communications concerningthe modern French drama, and deals with the work of M. Jules Lemaitre, M. Brieux, the author of the crowned play ' L'Evasion,' M. Henri Lavedan, and others. 4 Cacoethes Literarum ' attributes to the French educational system the worship of literature which is a striking feature of modern French life. From 1820 to 1850, holds M. Bastide, the writer, the pre- valent form of literature in France was poetry, at the present moment it is criticism. Among the few non-controversial articles in the Nineteenth Century is one by Sir Algernon West, entitled ' A Walk through Deserted London.' This is interest- ing as including recollections, but has some rather strange errors, the most curious of which is speaking of the Juliet of Miss O'Neal (sic). Dr. Jessopp has an article, in his well-known and most gossiping style, on ' Parish Life in England before the Great Pillage.' The property belonging to the parishes during the centuries before the great spoliation under Henry VIII. was, we are told, enormous, and was always growing. The church, too, was the property of the parish. We are bidden to get rid of the notion that either the monks or the landed gentry built our churches. What we now call squires did not then exist, and the monastic bodies were almost, from one point of view, nonconformists. " The parishes built the churches, and the parishes in all cases kept them under repair." Very brilliant, if a little too brightly coloured, are the pictures Dr. Jessopp gives us of life in this period. It was called " Merry England," but it seems to have been less merry than it is thought. Mr. Thomas Arnold gives a very interesting account of Arthur Hugh Clough,

and lets some light upon what seem to have been his religious convictions. Under the title of ' The Prisoners of the Gods,' Mr. W. B. Yeats deals with Celtic views as to ghosts. Mr. Prothero gives some very readable and suggestive pictures of ' The Childhood and School Life of Byron.' Almost as interested as England has of late been in her heroes, naval and military, appear to be the Americans: the Century opens with a paper by Mr. Paul Leicester Ford concerning ' Portraits of General Wolfe.' Most of them, we are told, are spurious. When Wolfe sprang at a bound to repu- tation, the printsellers turned into portraits of Wolfe yamped-up prints of men who had lapsed into obscurity. Five portraits, including one by Gains- borough, are reproduced. Of these the most striking is a profile from the National Portrait Gallery 'French Wives and Mothers' purifies French- women from the aspersion cast on them by Parisian journalists and novelists. It has some good pictures of French social life. Mr. Leonard Huxley contri- butes a description of his father's home life. ' Re- collections of Washington and his Friends' may be read with much pleasure. ' The Mysterious City of Honduras' will interest the antiquary. Scribner's opens with what promises to be a highly interesting ' Story of the [American] Revolution,' by Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge. The first instalment depicts only the first blow, and ends with the fights of Lexington and Concord. The illustrations generally are of much interest. Curiously enough, the next article of which also a portion only is given, ' Red Rock,' deals with the next most important step in the history of democracy the beginning of the war of secession. ' In the Chestnut Groves of Northern Italy ' is profusely and well illustrated. ' A French Literary Circle' depicts the "Garret" of Gon- court, and has portraits of both the Goncourts, Daudet and Madame Daudet, Octave Mirbeau the Princesse Mathilde, Flaubert, Zola, and other cele- brities. The frontispiece to the Pall Mall consists of an engraving of C. W. Cope's pretty if conven- tional picture of ' L' Allegro.' ' Osterley Park ' with its treasures, is, with the aid of photographs, depicted by Lady Jersey. Sir Walter Besant has begun a series of papers on South London, which shall do for transpontine London what he has done for Lon- don and Westminster. Sir Martin Conway de- scribes brilliantly 'The First Crossing of Spits- bergen.' Mr. Schooling gives the first of a series of illustrated articles on ' The Great Seal.' Judge Morris tells in vivacious fashion the story of ' The Campaign of the Nile.' ' The Largest Church of Olden Times is old St. Paul's.' Sir John Moore at Corunna, in the Comhill, is by the Rev. W. H. Fitchett, the author of a series of ' Fights for the Flag,' contributed to Australian periodicals, and now in course of reprinting. The story of heroism is vigorously told. Mr. Stephen Phillips under- takes the defence of ' The Poetry of Byron,' is very much in earnest, and says some good things, but is not wholly convincing. Mr. Charles Bright depicts some ' Ancient Methods of Signalling.' Miss Eliza- beth Lee has an excellent paper entitled ' A Literary Friendship ' presenting the friendship between Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Miss Mitford. The story of Madame Lafargue is told afresh. In Temple Bar the stirring and heroic career of Lally Tollendhal is narrated. ' Alas, poor Fido ! ' deals with the fidelity of dogs and the tears that have been spent upon them. ' Poetry and Pipes ' contains some criticism in the shape of a species of discussion