Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/367

 gth S .x. NOV. 1,1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

359

"B. B. B.," suggests the existence of preceding volumes. It appears from the ' Lords' Journals, vol. v. p. 632, that an ordinance for the speedy raising and levying of money " by a weekly assess- ment upon the cities of London and Westminster, and every County and city of the Kingdom of Eng- land and Dominion of Wales," was passed 4 March, 1642/3, and the names of William Savage, Thomas Tregonwell, Richard Brodrepp, John Hanham, William Sydenham, jun., and Robert Butler were added to the committee in Dorset. Subsequent ordinances modified or strengthened what had been done, but it was not until 1 July, 1644, that a com- mittee was appointed with comprehensive powers. In the committee for Dorset were included, in addition to the names already given, Denzill Hollis, Sir Thomas Trenchard, Sir Walter Erie, William, Earl of Salisbury, Thomas, Earl of Elgin, and others. On 19 August of the same year the five western counties were associated, and the Standing Committee, the minutes of which, so far as they exist, are printed, was appointed. Other ordinances followed. A full account of the duties of the Standing Committee is given, and followed by an analysis of its functions. A list of the officiating ministers employed by the committee is supplied, together with other information, by the aid of which the proceedings may be followed by the general reader.

It is impossible within reasonable limits to supply an idea of the various entries. Now it is ordered that the estate, real and personal, of Mr. Edmond Boger [.sic] (or Rogers), "of this county," a delinquent unto the State, be "seazed and secured," and the Sequestrator for Blandford Divission (sic) is bidden to put this order in execution. It is constantly commanded that the wife of a delinquent shall receive her " fifts " for the " mayntenance " of her- self and children, and that "noe spoyle nor wast bee made unto the woods belonginge thereunto by cutting downe or otherwise." An entry records that " James Hay ward hath the publique fayth of the Kingdome for 18li. Qs. and 8a., for one mare at 3/t., twentie wethers at ten pounds, two cows at five pounds six shillings and eightpence, which were taken and imployed for the service of the state in this Countie," &c. On '27 June, 1649, it is ordered that " Mr. James Pope, a godly and orthodox minister, shall officiate in the Cure of the parish church of Beere Hackett in this County, and for his labor and paines to betaken therein shall have and receive all the tithes, profits, parsonage house, garden, orchard, and oblac'ons, and all other profits belonging to the parsonage of the sd pish." Important orders concerning the estates of recusants are of frequent occurrence. These are too long for extraction. The book is a mine of information for the historian and the genealogist. An admirably full index adds to the comfort and advantage of the student. Mr. Mayo has executed his self-imposed task with the thoroughness of a zealot and the skill of an expert, and his book is a model of the manner in which local archaeology should be carried out. His frontispiece consists of a facsimile of the document appointing George Filliter to be collector to the Blandford district. The first signature to this, which is dated 28 October, 1645, is fehat of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, subsequently Earl of Shaftesbury, then, after his desertion of the cause of the king, in highest favour with Parliament Our thankfulness for the preservation of this trea- sure makes our regrets the more poignant at think-

ing what precious matter has been lost by indif- ference and neglect, and sometimes, perhaps, by political rancour and anxiety to remove all traces of a hated regime.

The Fascination oj London. The Strand District;

Westminster. By Sir Walter Besant and G. E.

Mitton. Chelsea. By G. E. Mitton. (A. & C.

Black.)

THREE further volumes have appeared in the at- tractive series designed by Sir Walter Besant, and carried out with the assistance of Miss Mitton (see ante, p. 280). As popular treatises on various localities these have interest for numerous readers, and a perusal of one of them before a walk through the district described will add to the enjoyment of the pedestrian. Fulness of detail is not to be expected in works of the class. In one or two instances some carelessness and obscurity are to be traced. Drury Lane Theatre, which comes naturally in ' The Strand District,' is thus said to have been built in 1663, burnt down in 1671, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren and reopened in 1654, a phoenix- like proceeding which puts to shame the imagination of Sir Boyle Roche. "In 1682 Thynne was murdered at the instigation of Count Konigsmarck" should be "Thomas Thynne, of Longleat," &c. Those to whom Thynne is adequate do not consult books of this class. Under ' Mulberry Gardens' it is said that " 'The Humorous Lovers," 1677, by the Duke of Newcastle, has a scene laid in these gardens." It would have been more to the purpose to say that the action of an entire play by Sir Charles Sedley, ' The Mulberry Gardens f (1668), passes therein. In the ' Westminster ' volume we are told that " during 1851-52 Scottish prisoners were brought to Tothill, and many died there, as the Churchwardens' Accounts show." We have not consulted the Churchwardens' Accounts for those years, but the newspapers of the date fail to record the fact. " Mr. Thorne, antiquary and originator of Notes and Queries, is said to have lived here" (in Great College Street). It is un- fortunate that we have no account of the fact, or even of the existence of the antiquary so named to whom we are indebted for our existence. The street in which 'Henry Purcell was born is called variously St. Ann's Lane (p. 23) and Great St. Ann's Lane (p. 19). It would be better to say in which Henry Purcell is reported to have been born. On p. 35, we read, "Caxton is often spoken of, incorrectly, as the inventor of printing. We did not know this, and are inclined to dispute the accuracy of the statement. Ignorant indeed must be the many by whom such an assertion is made. " That credit [the discovery of printing] belongs to Gutenberg, a native of Mainz," disposes airily and completely of the claims of Coster. The language needs alteration. How can one say in dealing with Chelsea that "a record of

240,000 buns being sold is reported," unless

"record" is used as slang? 'Chelsea' is, so far as a cursory perusal shows, more accurate than either of the volumes with which it is asso- ciated. We have not sought for errors and regret to have lighted on them. It is advisable, however, to make the series accurate, and in the case of books so pretty externally and so popularly got up praise is so glibly and unthinkingly bestowed by criticism, that it is expedient to" point out patent faults. Indexes to the separate volumes are a convenience.