Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/166

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xii. AUG. 22, IGOS.

LADY NOTTINGHAM (9 th S. ix. 128, 213, 455 ; x. 11, 97, 336). The New York Times of 13 March, 1902, has the following :

"Frederick Sulzbach, father of twenty -eight children, appeared before Magistrate Harrison, Philadelphia, to-day, and charged two of his sons, Frank aged eighteen and Lewis sixteen, with non- support. Sulzbach told the magistrate he was fifty- two years old and had been married four times. By his first wife he had five children, by his second fourteen, by his third four. The oldest living child is twenty-nine years old and the youngest an infant."

I clipped the following from a New York paper, the date and title of which I have not:

"In the Harleian MSS., Nos. 78 and 980, in the library of the British Museum, mention is made of an extraordinary family. The parties were a Scotch weaver and his wife (not wives), who were the parents of sixty-two children. The majority were boys ; the record mentions that forty-six of the male children lived to manhood, and only four of the daughters lived to be grown-up women. Thirty- nine of the sons were living in the year 1630. It is recorded in one of the old histories of Newcastle that ' a certyne gentleman of large estaytes ' rode this wonderful story. It is further related that Sir J. Bowers adopted ten of the sons, and three other ' landed gentlemen ' took ten each. The re- maining members of the family were brought up by the parents."
 * thirty and three miles beyond the Tyne ' to prove

JOHN TOWNSHEND.

ENGLISH ACCENTUATION (9 th S. xi. 408, 515 ; xii. 94). Prophesying is risky work, and it may be worth noting that Italian stresses ettolitri and kilometrL so we shall probably do the like. O. O. H.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Angevin Empire ; or, the Three Reigns of

Henry II. , Richard /., and John, A.U. 1154-1216.

By Sir James H. Ramsay, M.A. (Sonnenschein

& Co.)

OF the great historical work on which he has long been engaged Sir James Ramsay of Bamff now furnishes a third instalment. His aim, as has already been stated (see 8 th S. ii. 19), is to supply from the original sources an authoritative history of England during the first fifteen hundred year's of her existence. The first volume, issued by the same publishers as the present, consists of 'The foundations of England; or, Twelve Centuries of British History, from B.C. 55 to 1154.' The second carries the record to 1216; while 'Lancaster and i ork,' issued by the Oxford University Press, deals with the period between 139 and 1458. There yet remains, accordingly, the time between the death of John in 1216 and the accession of Henry IV. In his latest work Sir James covers a period occu- pied by many distinguished writers, and notably

y u i, late Bish op of Oxford, the influence of

whose labours is necessarily felt throughout the book.

is natural to compare our author's verdicts upon

the Angevin monarchs with those of his brilliant

predecessor. On the whole, his estimate of Cceur de Lion seems less favourable than that of btubbs. Richard was, Sir James holds, " a man of nervous, excitable temperament rather than an Ironsides. His frequent attacks of illness are inconsistent with the idea of indomitable strength. * He loved war and he shone in arms." He was not only a fine warrior, but an able commander. " Judged by the most moderate standard, he must be pronounced a bad king and a vicious man." These be hard words, subsequently qualified by the statement that Richard remained to the end of his life a high-spirited, reckless, overbearing schoolboy, with- out sense of responsibility or duty, but fully satis- fied in his own mind that might made right. It is remarkable to notice the apparent difference in stature between Richard and John, the former, according to his monument at Fontevrault, being about six feet two in height, and the latter, accord- ing to the effigy on his tomb, only five feet six. A presentation of the face of Richard is among the illustrations to the volume. To John, the worst of the Angevin kings, Sir James is, naturally, stern. What distinguishes John from the rest is his "pettiness, meanness, and spitefulness." We seek in vain for " one good deed, one kindly act, to set against his countless offendings." The one cheering thing in connexion with his reign is that " the faultiness of the sovereign proved the salvation of the people. Had John been less intolerable, Clergy. Baronage, and Commons might never have banded together to win Magna Charta." It is not pretended that these views have any great originality or novelty.

In the present volume, as in his preceding works, the author is at much pains to test by record evidence the only trustworthy authority the accuracy of the reports concerning the number of troops taking part in any named en- counter. He has arrived at the conclusion that the numbers have, as a rule, been multiplied by ten. Military affairs still occupy much attention. Richard's campaign in the Holy Land constitutes the most animated portion of his volume, while the description of the battle of Bpuvines is the result of a close study of the district. The early pages are occupied with the Becket controversy. How turbulent was Becket, and how completely the views he expressed would, if carried out, have paralyzed all government, and " relegated England to the theocratic imbecility of Anglo-Saxon days,'' is clearly shown, as is the constantly defiant atti- tude the bishops held to the king and the Court. How injudicious and how unpopular was the arch- bishop's conduct throughout is also demonstrated. The brilliant portraiture of Bishop Stubbs Sir James does not attempt to rival. His work is, however, ripe, scholarly, and trustworthy, and ranks with the labours of Mr. Round and Miss Norgate, indebtedness to whom is frankly acknow- ledged. It is doubtful whether in any one work a history more serviceable and compendious can be seen of a period in which was laid the foundation of our literature.

Cardiff Records. Edited by John Hobson Matthews.

Vol. IV. (Sotheran & Co.)

THE fourth volume of the Cardiff municipal records appears, happily, from the same able and indus- trious pen to which are owing the three previous volumes, which, on their appearance at intervals of something over a year, have been duly noted in