Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/287

 9 th S. II. OCT. 1,'98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

279

Alfriston and its surroundings. I was in error in not mentioning my authority in the first instance. C. H. C.

South Hackney.

The mystery of the Alfriston register is solved in part by that unromantic work Kelly's 'Post Office Directory,' where it is said that "the register dates from mar- riages, 1504 ; baptisms, 1538 ; burials, 1547." EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Pages and Pictures from Forgotten Children's Books.

By A. W. Tuer. (Leadenhall Press.) MR. TUER is a pleasant companion in a saunter through antiquarian fields. Especially happy is he when, taking your arm, he leads you down bypaths such as he now haunts, and shows you the quaint letterpress and quainter designs of the children's books in which our fathers delighted. Few, indeed, are those still remaining whose own infancy was amused or impressed by the booklets, representative pages of which are now reproduced. The space covered is practically the first twenty-five years of the present century, and those whose early years they cheered are now presumably septuagenarians at the least. Tales such as ' Jack the Giant-Killer ' and 'Cinderella' are perennial, and primitive versions of these were constantly reprinted. Stories with a moral lesson are, perhaps fortunately, less hardy, and most of the edifying matter Mr. Tuer supplies has a distinct flavour of antiquity. One of these, ' The Dairy ; or, Cautionary Stories in Verse, formed a part of our own earliest treasures. From this Mr. Tuer gives three poems, with accom- panying illustrations. We seem to remember one composition quainter than any of those supplied. It ran, so far as our memory recalls, as follows :

When Philip's good mama was ill,

His father (?) bade him to be still,

As both the doctor and the nurse

Had said that noise would make her worse.

At night, when Philip went to bed, He kissed mama, and whispering said, " My dear mama, I never will Make any noise when you are ill."

Most excellent Philip ! We dp not produce such boys now. The pabulum is different of those fed on works such as. ' The Golden Age ' of Mr. Kenneth Grahame or the scarcely less delightful narrations of Miss Nesbit. We make no apology for quoting a triviality of the sort, since ' N. & Q.' is the home for such. What would we not give to have the children's books of early civilizations, Egyptian, Buddhistic, or pagan ? Our quotation, moreover, though it does not appear in Mr. Tuer's book, is exactly character- istic of what does. In addition to title-pages and explanatory matter there are four hundred illustrations some simply comic, as of Deborah Dent, who kisses her donkey ; others gnomical, as " You can't make a whistle of a pig's tail " ; others, again, instructive, as ' The Rebellious Schoolgirl ' ; and yet others showing street occupations, children's games, and the like. Among those who supply the

illustrations is Rowlaridson, whose 'Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders' have a certain measure of his well-known extravagance of humour see, for instance, "Buy my sweet roses" and " Past one o'clock." Two works are quoted show- ing that what are known as nonsense verses are much older than Lear. Poor enough are some of the rhymes, as when we hear of the old woman of Gosport they are all old women

There was an old woman of Gosport, And she was one of the cross sort !

In other cases the rhymes have been familiarized in subsequent and, it must be owned, superior variants. A short preface by Mr. Tuer gives interesting particulars concerning the growth and manufacture of these works. It is impossible to convey an idea of the variety of subjects illustrated in this com- pilation, or the curious character of many of the cuts. Mr. Tuer has rendered a service to the anti- quary quite out of proportion with the apparent significance of his book. Important works natur- ally survive. It would take to efface the Pyramids almost as great labour as it took to erect them. Works such as are now reproduced disappear rapidly. The greater their popularity the quicker their disappearance. It is a significant fact that ' Le Patissier Francois ' is the rarest of the Elzevirs, having been thumbed, greased, and destroyed by cooks. It is astonishing what a light is thrown upon conditions of past life by these productions, in the pursuit of which Mr. Tuer is indefatigable.

The Marriage Registers of St. Dunstan's, Stepney.

Edited by Thomas Colyer - Fergusson. Vol. I.

1568-1639. (Privately printed.) ANTIQUARIES and genealogists are to be congra- tulated upon the beginning of one more important task in the printing of the marriage registers of St. Dunstan's, Stepney. The marriage entries, beginning in 1568, have fortunately survived the partial destruction of the church in the great fire of London. They are comprised in five books, of which the first two and a portion of the third are included in the present volume. Stepney during the period covered was a place of much more importance than it now seems, and St. Dunstan's was the mother church of what is now collectively called East London. Its population was horribly reduced by the Plague, but has since augmented to its present immense bulk. The whole of the mar- riage entries of St. Dunstan's have been extracted by Mr. Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, of Wombwell House, Gravesend, to whom application should be made, and the earlier half is now rendered accessible in an edition limited to one hundred copies. Our own regard for publications of the kind is known, and it is with a quasi-paternal regard we watch their preservation. Among entries of most in- terest to which attention is drawn is that under the date 25 April, 1587, Stephen Gosson and Elizabeth Acton. Mr. Colyer - Fergusson says, rightly, that Gosson is the well-known dramatist and preacher of the Elizabethan era. He might with advantage have added that Gosson had at that time been for two years lecturer at Stepney parish church at a salary of 301. A second entry of a kind of which there are few is that, 12 Dec., 1594, of " The right honourable Edward Russell, Erie of Bedford, and Mrs. Luce, daughter to Sir John Harrington [sic], Knight." This wedding was by licence. The reason for its taking place in Stepney