Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/47

 9s.x. JULY 12, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the quantity or number indicated. Whether " good colloquial " or not I do not pretend to judge, but the term is an ambiguous one, and only to be rightly understood by the con- text. Dialect speakers would simply use " up," where polite persons would say " up- wards of." For instance, " I count I 've agot up a score " in polite form would be " I believe I have upwards of twenty," meaning nearly or about twenty in both cases. If either speaker had added "or'more" to his sentence, then "up" and "upwards of" would alike have signified " quite " or " fully." In speak- ing of age, " So-and-so must be upwards of eighty," it would be understood that over eighty was meant. Generally, I should say that both " up" and " upwards of " would be taken to denote less rather than over the number referred to. F. T. ELWORTHY.

LADY-DAY DAY (9 th S. ix. 447, 517). In the chapter devoted to 'Our People' in 'A Cornish Parish,' the Eev. J. Hammond, vicar of St. Austell, informs us of a similar pecu- liarity of speech to that mentioned by MR. F. T. ELWORTHY. Instead of widower, the St. Austell man will say " widew - man " ; " widow- woman " for widow ; " two twains " for twins ; and they never speak of April or May, but April month and May month.

RICHARD LAWSON.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Nottingham Parish Registers. Marriages, St. Mari/s Church, 1666-1813. Edited by W. P. W. Phillimore and James Ward. 2 vols. (Phillimore &Co.)

THESE registers have been transcribed by Mr. J. T. Godfrey. So far as we have been able to test them without having the original manuscripts before us, the copy seems to be satisfactory. The editors have, we are sorry to say, not given an index ; they believe it to be more advisable to secure in print as many registers as possible, and to defer the work of the index-maker to a future time. There is, of course, something to be said for this plan, but, all things considered, it is not satisfactory. Some few people regard it as a pleasant recreation to read through the whole of a parish register we are ourselves among the number but to most persons it is an irksome labour. To go through the whole of these two thick volumes, containing su they do some thirty-five entries on a page, wouk be distracting work for any one at a time when the mind was occupied by one particular race, or even a group of families. It is, moreover, a misfortune that the entries are abridged, not given in full, a: written, for not only is the old flavour impaired but in the entries after 1754 we miss the names o the witnesses. This is very unfortunate, as these often afford to the genealogist hints as to relation ships, connexions, and friendships which throw light on family history.

Though we have felt bound to point out that hese volumes are not all that could be desired, we re glad to have them. Nottingham has always een an important town, and St. Mary's parish, on ccount of its central position, has all along filled

great place therein. Before access to London ecame relatively easy the local gentry had their own houses in Nottingham, as the Devonians had t Exeter and North-Countrymen at York, there- ore weddings which it would be more natural to ook for in other places are frequently found to iave occurred at St. Mary's. We are also informed hat this church was a place wherein clandestine marriages were often celebrated. There is a topular opinion that the statute known as Lord lardwicke's Act (1753) had, as it was assuredly ntended to have, the effect of putting an end to hese irregular unions. Such, however, was not he case. They flourished in a different manner or many years after, and it would be very rash to ay that they do not occur at the present day.

Archbishop Rotherham. By H. L. Bennett, M.A.

(Lincoln, Ruddock.)

THE subject of this memoir held a high and honour- able position at the Court of Edward IV., rising to )e Lord High Chancellor of England and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Mr. Bennett, when writing his shorter notice of the prelate for lad some good matter left on his hands that could not be utilized in a sketch, but might well find a alace on a larger canvas. The result is the present >ctavo. The actual facts known about Archbishop Rotherham, sooth to say, are scanty enough, and the author, in default o* personal details,-has had recourse to elaborating the milieu or environment in which the great archbishop lived and made his mark. In his third chapter, e.g., he gives us a pretty full account of life in Cambridge as it was in the early part of the fifteenth century, and so throughout he expatiates on historical and anti- quarian matters, always of interest, and more or less germane to the subject. The best claim Rotherham has to be remembered consists in his splendid benefactions to the places of education which he generously fostered. In this respect he is worthy of a niche in the temple of fame beside Wykeham and Wolsey. Some reproductions of ancient prints serve to illustrate the memoir.
 * he ' Dictionary of National Biography, found he

THE arrival of peace will, it is to be hoped, shortly bring some change in the contents of the reviews and magazines, the pages of which will before long be able to devote more space to literature and art than has recently been assigned these subjects. South Africa, however, still looms large, and the July Fortnightly gives, in addition to ' England after War ' and ' The Empire and the Coronation,' articles on 'Alfred Milner' and ' Magersfontein.' Better suited to our columns, if not inherently more interesting, are other contributions. ' Dumas the Elder,' by Mr. Francis Gribble, deals with the later rather than the earlier life of that Cyrano de Bergerac of literature. Quaint, but more than a little saddening, is the account of his visitors, his

Earasites, and his mistress : " He never seems to ave had a romantic attachment to any woman, but the pleasures of la vie galante were necessary to him. One might almost say he was fond of women, as some people are fond of children. He liked to have them about him. There were gener-