Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/284

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m. APHIL s, m

but is the phrase " fflores Hortorum " likely ? I suggest "Poetarum," and MR. PORTER may look again at his manuscript with these lights. I would add that I possess a book bearing the following title :

"Illvstrivm | Poetarvm | Flores: | per | Octa- vianvm Mirandvlam collect!, & in locos communes digest! : nunc verd ab innumeris mendis repurgati | a | Theod. Pvlmanno | Craneburgio. | Cum Indice locorumcommunium. | Antverpiae, | Apudloannem Bellerum sub aquila aurea. | MDLXXXVIII. | Cum Priuilegio Regis."

It is a copious Latin anthology, with alpha- betically arranged subject headings and marginal references. F. ADAMS.

106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

May not this book be c Flores Doctorum,' a work which I find announced among " Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Books " in ' London's Cata- logue of the Most Vendible Books in England,' 1658 ? The last word, being indistinct, might easily be " Docto," with the ,r-like contraction for rum and orum, common enough in docu- ments of the period. London gives neither place nor date of publication, but the size only, 16mo. In another part of his catalogue he has "Flores Solitudinis, certain rare and elle- gant pieces of Temperance and Patience ; of life and death ; the world contemned by the Bp. of Lyons ; the life of Paulinus, Bp. of Nola, &c. 12mo." In the 'Catalogi Veteres Librorum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Dunelm.' (Surtees Society, vol. vii.) we have 'Flores Bernardi, cum quadam alia tabula prsece- denti,' and 'Flores Bedse super Epistolam Pauli ad Romanes.' Of course, " cortox " suggests " cortex," and the book may be of the nature of a herbal ; but as I find no work in ancient catalogues bearing that title, I put forth the foregoing suggestion for what it is worth. RICHARD WELFORD.

GOODHALL, YORKS (9 th S. iii. 227). Is not this Gowdall, between Snaith and Hensall ? ISAAC TAYLOR.

" THE POLICY OP PIN-PRICKS " (9 th S. iii. 46, 115, 238). I am unable, I regret to say, to comply with ST. SWITHIN'S request, for the simple reason that my information was de- rived from an English, and not a French source. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Life and Times of the Early Valois Queens. By

Catherine Bearne. (Fisher Unwin. ) IN this handsome and attractive volume Mrs. Bearne deals with the lives of the first three queens of the house of Valois Jeanne de Bourgogne, Blanche de

Navarre, and Jeanne d'Auvergne et de Boulogne. Concerning these illustrious ladies ordinary histories are all but silent, and the record of their lives has been compiled with commendable industry from early chronicles and similar sources. Comparatively few particulars as to the three queens them- selves are obtainable, and the record of their doings is of no special vivacity. A good picture of life in France is, however, furnished, at a time when the fortunes of that fair country were all but at their lowest, since, in addition to the terrible scourge of the Black Death, with which all Europe was visited, she had to undergo the revolt of the Jacquerie, and to see her land overrun by English hordes and by disbanded mercenaries, who committed fearful outrages. Humiliation of the keenest kind was not spared the French, and the volume includes accounts of the English victories at Crikjy and Poictiers. As a picture of France the book is, accordingly, to be commended. Its pages are, however, blurred and indistinct, being overcrowded with figures. As a rule, the information is trust- worthy, and we have detected few mistakes, and none of importance. We never heard of the ' Grande [sic] Dictionnaire Historique' of Morey, mentioned p. 81, and must suppose "Morey" to be a misprint for Moreri. We should say, also, that " Lucas le Borgue," named p. 115 as making for the king a cotte hardie of escallate, should be Lucas le Borgne. Fourteenth-century French offers some difficulties ; but we know of no such word as borgue. The most charming feature in the book consists of the illus- trations. These are taken by Mr. Edward H. Bearne from ancient drawings and similar sources, and supply admirably vivid pictures of feudal France. The frontispiece shows the Chateau of Chastellux, a fine specimen of a feudal residence, " picturesque outside and intolerable inside," as our author says. We have in addition, besides por- traits and shields, admirable views of the old Chateau of Dijon, the Chateau Gaillard, the Louvre, the Palais de la Cite, the Chateau de Vin- cennes, the Tour de Nesle, the Grand Chatelet, St. Denis, Evreux, Melun, &c. The legends connected with these edifices, notably the Tour de Nesle, are briefly narrated. Mrs. Bearne is to be con- gratulated on having chosen ground almost un- occupied in this country. She holds out a half promise of a second volume, giving lives of Jeanne de Bourbon, Isabelle de Bavie~re, and others. The sad career of Isabelle de Baviere should furnish opportunities for a good study. It is, perhaps, unreasonable to wish for more personal particulars concerning the women dealt with. Such are not easily obtainable, and when obtained are not often edifying.

St. Ronarfs Well. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by

Andrew Lang. (Nimmo.)

IT is pleasant to read afresh ' St. Ronan's Well, now included in the reissue of the handsome " Border Edition." When in boyhood we firs! encountered the work in what used to be called the author's favourite edition we found it unread- able, and it was not until a decade or more had passed that we accomplished a task since that time often repeated. The opening chapters, once re garded as the dullest, are now special favourites. Not until the tedious, and, as Mr. Lang says, ''conventional" Nabob comes on the scene t( serve as a deiis ex machind does the book become tiresome. We are not easily reconciled to the