Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/507

 9*" s. ii. DEC. 17,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

499

of the Armies of God. Perceval, then, is St. Dominic, the great preacher against the Albigenses ; St. Gawain, again, is FulEe of Marseilles, mentioned by Dante and Petrarch. How the incidents of the Holy Graal fit in with history, with the attempted conversion and ultimate suppression of the Albi- genses. the quarrel of John with the Papacy, and the following interdict under which England was laid we must leave our readers to study in Dr. Evans's interesting and fascinating volume. Those who read it will find much highly ingenious specu- lation, backed up by profound erudition. Whether conviction is carried is to be seen. It is at least certain that to the educated student the perusal of the book cannot be anything other than a delight.

The Companions of Pickle. By Andrew Lang.

(Longmans & Co.)

MOVED partly, it may be supposed, by the indigna- tion with which his ' Pickle the Spy ' was received by Highland critics, Mr. Lang has issued a com- panion volume, in which his former allegations are supported by further and, as we hold, irrefutable evidence, and in which an animated account is given of treacheries and meannesses on the part of the Highland magnates by whom the Young Pretender was environed. Belonging to those by whom the evidence Mr. Lang previously brought was accepted as practically conclusive, we stand in need of no further proof. We welcome none the less, on its own account, this later volume, with its record, almost unparalleled, of infamy, and find matter for much reflection on the display of the seamy side of a great and externally splendid political movement. Like the now reburnished baldric of Porthos in 'Les Trois Mousquetaires.' what is seen of the movement of the '45 is superb enough. What is hidden behind the cloak is less tarnished than essentially squalid. Were it not for the pictures of truth and honour on the part of the Keiths, and of exemplary loyalty and chivalry on that of Lochiel, we might credit Mr. Lang with having compiled a fresh history of pirates. By the head and heels we lug in the declaration of Lochie when, all being done that man could do, and all being done in vain, he received the offer of Prince Charles to provide for him in France. After telling the Prince's father, whom he addresses as James III., that it may suit Lord Ogilby and others to make a figure in France, he continues : " I hope Y[ou]r Majesty] will approve of the resolution I have taken to share in the fate of the people I have undone, and, if they must be sacrificed, to fall alon^ with them." Again and again the name of Lochiel is associated with those of Murray of Broughton, Barisdale, Glengarry, and other traitors, as the Abdiel of the Stuart cause in the Highlands. It is concerning Murray of Broughton the story is told that Scott, the father of Sir Walter, who was his agent, threw out of the window, after Murray s departure, the cup out of which he had drunk " No lip of me or mine comes after Broughton s ! An interesting chapter is supplied upon "Made moiselle Luci," the "French Egeria of Princ. Charles." In this is a correction of a statement in ' Pickle the Spy.' Not Montesquieu, as was at first surmised, but Condillac, was the philo sopher" of whom the Prince speaks m his correspondence. Apropos of Mademoiselle Luc Mr Lang gives an experience of a clair voyante for which he personally vouches. Con cerning this we should like to know more. Much

urther information is supplied as to the arrival and burial of the seven casks of French gold sent to urther the rebellion, the effect of which in corrupt- ng and breeding quarrels among the Highland chiefs is painful to contemplate. Much corrobor- ative evidence of the identity of Glengarry with Pickle the Spy is brought forward, and the theory -put forward in sheer desperation by those re- uctant to find a new Judas in the head of a High- and clan that Pickle was personating- Glengarry s shown to be impossible. Those who are not con- miced by the present volume of the identity of Pickle with Glengarry are not likely to be con- vinced hereafter. Apart from the proceedings of Pickle and his rivals in infamy, Mr. Lang gives some terrible pictures of the poverty of the U igh- anders. We are told how Strathnairn crofters bled their cows in winter, and mixing the blood with oatmeal used it as food. To so low a plight were the poor animals brought that in the morning inhabitants had to aid each other to help up their respective cows. The volume, which naturally is vivacious and well written, is full of curious and edifying matter. It is illustrated with two por- traits of the Earl Marischal, taken 1717 and 1750, the former from the Scottish National Museum, the latter from the National Portrait Gallery ; a miniature of Prince Charles in 1747, a replica of one given by Charles to a Macleod of the Raasy house ; and a miniature of Prince Charles and the Duke of York, from the original in the possession of Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael.
 * hey were unable to rise from the ground, and the

The Church Towers of Somersetshire. By E. Piper, R.P.E. Parts VI. and VII. (Bristol, Frost & Reed.)

GOOD progress is being made by Mr. Piper in his labour of love of etching the divine church towers of Somersetshire. The parts now issued begin with the church of St. Mary, Yatton, a noble specimen of Decorated and Perpendicular architecture. Its special feature, the nave, does not come within the scope of Mr. Piper's work ; but the tower, with its octagonal and unfinished spire, constitutes an object well worthy of his needle. Mr. Warden Page, who still supplies the descriptions, dwells upon the "absurd little pinnacles * of the truncated spire. These detract nothing from the impressiveness of the tower, which, plain as it is, counts among the many fine towers around Bristol. The decorations of the porch are specially beautiful. Not very far away, in East Somersetshire, is the church of St. Andrew, Backwell, the tall tower of which attracts the eye of the traveller westward bound. The curious effect produced by the south-western pinnacle, which is different from the others, is well shown in the etching. This diversity, we learn, is due to a storm in the early part of the seventeenth century, which played havoc with the tower, and compelled the rebuilding of the uppermost story. Next comes the homely and sleepy little church of St. Andrew (the Old Church), Clevedon, nestled snugly among the hills of the Severn coast, and hallowed by associations with Coleridge and Tenny- son. Anything rather than assertive is the tower, which, however, is massive, and has in the lower portion Norman arches, besides from the summit a view of " the haven under the hill." The general effect, as is shown by Mr. Warden Page, conveys the idea of sturdiness. The last illustration consists of Woodspring Priory, an expiatory chapel, originally