Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/346

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. APRIL 29, '99.

the book is useful for purposes of reference. In its compilation Mr. Whitman has had the collaboration of Mr. J. R. Mcllraith.

Redgauntlet. By Sir Walter Scott. Edited by

Andrew Lang. (Nimmo.)

' REDGAUNTLET ' has always been one of our favour- ites among the Waverley novels. In none is the intrigue more carefully conducted or more pleasantly progressive, and in few is the element oi romance more agreeably prominent. To one read- ing it for the first time and one ought always to be able to put oneself in that position there is an acceptable atmosphere of mystery and dread. One grows genuinely apprehensive for the fate of Darsie Latimer, over whom hang so many vague dangers. It would, indeed, be easy to write volumes in praise of the scenes of captivity in Cumberland. At the same tinie, Scott to use a vulgar slang phrase not, we believe, current in his day plays low down upon his reader by making his two heroes, Darsie Latimer and Alan Fairford, rivals in priggishness, and in turning into derision his only love interest by making Lilias the sister of Darsie. Those who read romances as they ought to be read cannot feel great sorrow for Darsie, who is kept a prisoner, but with the knowledge that the woman he loves is under the same roof. His revolt from the heroine because she accepts frankly the kiss Darsie is bidden by his grim guardian to bestow is quite unpardon- able, and deprives him wholly of our regard. It is, moreover, impossible for us to transfer in a moment our sympathies to Alan Fairford, who has no right to be in love with Lilias. We arc dealing, however, with ' Redgauntlet ' as if it were but now written, which is a proof of the hold it has upon us. We are glad to welcome it in the new issue of the "Border Edition," into which, with all the plates of the old edition, it is reintroduced. These plates are well executed, but, as is often the case in illus- trations to fiction, are not always too helpful in interpretation.

THE first papers in Folk-lore are Mr. Lang's reply to Mr. Hartland on the subject of the 'Australian Gods' and Mr. Hartland's rejoinder. Needless to say, neither antagonist succeeds in con- vincing his opponent. Mr. Lang continues to believe that man, while yet in a condition of low savagery, is capable of evolving elevated ideas concern- ing a maker of the sensible universe, although he may be incapable of regarding these ideas fixedly. Mr. Hartland cannot accept' this belief. As both controversialists, however, are merely buffeting each other in honour of their liege lady Science, no serious wounds are given ; and Mr. Hartland finally sums up the matter for himself and his adversary in the words, "After all, I do not desire victory, but truth. ' More facts and more careful criticism ' are, as he says, what we want. In scientific inquiry a dialectic triumph may be a disaster." Following on this discussion come the minutes of the Folk-lore Society, the annual report of the Council, and the address of the retiring President, who points out the unique importance of modern English literature for mankind an importance "due to its being the inheritor of archaic traditions and conventions, and the medium- through which so much of this archaic material, otherwise doomed to decay, has to be preserved for and interpreted to the world at large." A characteristic function of the mixed race in which English and Celtic blood predominates

and hile

seems to be the power of retaining, modifying, transmitting ancient ideas and methods. W other nations were content to throw away popular custom and replace it by Roman law, early England had the good fortune to cling to her native usages and to this day the British Empire respects the folk-institutions of the populations living under its sway. To adapt rather than to destroy is the tendency of the Anglo-Celtic stock, and the warp and woof of the national literature bears witness to this instinct. Hence the British Isles have a special import in the study of folk-lore.

give anything approaching a full account of the English embroidery of the Middle Ages in a single paper of a magazine, but Miss Robson writes with evident interest in and understanding of the sub- j ject, and we hope that she may be able somewhat i to extend her paper on the subject in book form. We wish that she had made some mention of samplers ; that form of embroidery is of great interest. In ' Notes of the Month ' a short account is given of the First Folio Shakspeare which has recently come to light in Lincolnshire, and which has proved to be of exceptional interest. There is an instructive paper on 'Petiver's Collections' by Mr. G. L. Apperson. These are almost unknown to the public.

THERE is nothing in the April number of the Genealogical Magazine worthy of any especial note. We think that in a magazine of this kind it is scarcely wise to print articles translated from the French. The paper entitled 'Is there a French Nobility?' contains matters of interest ; but surely any one who wished to read it had better do so in the original of M. A. de Roger than in the trans- lation by L. D.

WE hear with much regret of the death, in his seventy-eighth year, of Mr. C. Leeson Prince, of Crowborough Observatory, the author of many works of reputation, and a constant and valuecl contributor to our columns.

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