Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/87

 9 th S. I. JAN. 22, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

79

s hich are given on p. iv is the assertion that the f Icon-gentle is the female of the peregrine, not of t e goshawk, and her male is the tercel-gentle. r j lis change is due to the appearance of D. H. ]S adden's ' Diary of Master William, Silence,' re- ewed but a few weeks ago in our columns. How ide-reaching would be the influence of that fine ork we stated at the time. Continuing the illus- ations of advance we have previously supplied, , e may say that we have in this section 3,467 words a 3 against numbers varying from 446 in Johnson to "2 008 in the ' Century Dictionary,' and have 16,612 (dotations against 1,372 in Richardson and 2,473 in t le ' Century.' No better proof of the exhaustive i ature of the information supplied can be advanced t iian what is said concerning Freemasons. Of four 1 ropounded meanings of free in this conjunction that favoured is the hypothesis "that the term lefers to the mediaeval practice of emancipating skilled artisans in order that they might be able to travel and render their services wherever any great building was in course of construction." It is stated, however, that the most generally accepted view is that/ree mason signified those who were free of the Masons' guild. By the light of this freestone may with advantage be studied, though the worth of the analogy is not to be over-estimated. The term free lance is apparently no older than Sir Walter Scott, 1820, and as at present applied to politicians is forty-four years later. Under freeze-pot (given as obsolete) we have, from Tusser, " Janeuer fryse pot and feuerell fill dyke." As still or lately in use we know that phrase as "January freeze pot to the fire," which at least conveys an idea of a wonder- ful extremity of cold. Ihis may be worth the attention of the editor of ' The English Dialect Dictionary.' The words friand and friandise seem to have lingered in the language from the period when Norman French was spoken, the former word being in Florio, the latter in Caxton. One would have supposed that friand lingered longer than Tom Moore. Under friendless, though the examples are adequate, we should have liked Web- ster's "Friendless bodies of unburied men," as it supplies a strangely subtle, if poetical, instance of use. It is curious that while gadding is encoun- tered so early as 1545, and gadder about in 1568, no instance of gad-about is traced earlier than 1817. A short but profoundly interesting article there are, of course, many such will be found under gaffer. It is very curious to hear of gaffer vicars and gaffer bishops.

Book-Prices Current. Vol. XL (Stock.) EACH fresh volume of this rapidly augmenting and, to book-buyers, indispensable serial augments in size and importance, the latest volume consisting of considerably over 650 pages. That the work fulfils the functions for which it is intended may be guessed by the wail occasionally heard from a few booksellers who, seeking to obtain fancy prices for alleged rarities, find the reader in possession of an index to the value of these so-called treasures. In a very useful and readable introduction, Mr. Slater, to whom the compilation is due, gives many curious particulars. 1897 is, it appears, a memor- able year as regards the prices obtained for books, the average for lots being higher than it has ever been since the first appearance of the work. The average price was 26s. Id. in 1893, 28s. 5d. in 1894, 31s. 4d. in 1895, 33s. lOd. in 1896, while in 1897 it rose so high as 53s. 9c. The cause for this won-

derful advance is not to be found, as the owner of books might be sanguine enough to hope, in the tact that the prices of books are increasing. It is simply due to the fact that 1,683 lots in the sale of the first part of the library of the Earl of Ashburnham realized over 30,1511., which was a price large enough to disarrange the year's statistics. Large as is the sum, however, it affects little the statistics when extended over five years, and is wholly imperceptible at the close of ten years, since, continues Mr. Slater, the possessor of a set of Book - Prices Current ' has at his fingers' ends a record of books which have sold for nearly a million pounds sterling. Of the formation of the Ashburn- ham Library one of the last of the princely private collections of which our great noblemen are regret- tably, if naturally, anxious to dispossess them- selvesan account is given. Mr. Slater regards the growth of public libraries as being fatal in the matter of books to much private enterprise. This is true in a sense ; but we fancy only in a sense. A few public libraries may think it well to have a first folio Shakspeare or an early Chaucer, but in the case of most of the books with which the ardent collector concerns himself he has not much to fear from their rivalry. Public libraries, with one or two exceptions, cannot afford to burden their shelves with Caxtons and Wynkyn de Wordes. How many works of Dame Juliana Berners, which in the Ashburnham sale brought very large sums passed into English public libraries, we should be glad to know. We do not fancy even, that books such as Berners's 'Froissart,' Painter's 'Palace of Pleasure,' Chapman's ' Homer,' or Wither's ' Emblemes 'which last has not been reprinted in the original editions, repose upon the shelves of public libraries. In the case of the very largest of such the student of earlv English literature in first editions finds them of little use. It is curious to see, in the sale of the best collections, what varia- tions of price are encountered. A book, thus, which so recently as the Sunderland sale brought 38^., went in the Ashburnham for no more than 51. 5s. Instances even more remarkable of a pro- portionate advance can, of course, be quoted. Valuable alterations and improvements are made in successive volumes, and facilities of reference are much augmented. We have noted and used each successive volume, and are in the habit of constant reference. We know of no work which personally we consult so frequently or with so much advantage. Few, indeed, are the cases in which research does not bring us the information we seek. The position of ' Book-Prices Current ' the first in the field of its class has not been seriously assailed by the imitations to which, natur- ally, it has given rise.

The Cathedral Church of Exeter. By Percy Addle-

shaw, B.A. (Bell & Sons.)

THE excellent "Cathedral Series "of Messrs. Bell & Sons, published under the direction of Messrs Gleeson White and E. F. Strange, has been enriched by a capital volume on the noble cathedral of the west, a building in situation and picturesqueness and massiveness of effect inferior to none of our cathedrals, all of which have their separate grace and charm, and each one of which is lovely as a dream. Mr. Addleshaw has done justice to his noble subject, and the volume constitutes an ade- quate, a well- written, and a well-illustrated guide to a shrine to which every traveller to the west is