Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/66

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

. in. JAN. 21, m

Sarum use was chiefly founded. The Customary, which is supplementary to the Consuetudinary and follows it in assigning the various parts of the ser- vice to different members of the cathedral body, is now printed for the first time. In the judgment of the editor, these documents were probably compiled and systematized very early in the thirteenth cen- tury 'by Bishop Poore, the founder of Salisbury Cathedral, out of the liturgical arrangements of his famous predecessor Bishop Osmund.

Mr. Frere has evidently studied the MS. sources of his treatises with that extreme accuracy and conscientiousness which is the cardinal virtue of a liturgiplogist, and one not always exhibited by some previous workers in this particular field. Some specimens of the old musical settings of the versicles are given in an appendix. The Ordinal of the same use, which is practically a book of rubrics dealing with the method and sequence of the divers parts of the service, will be issued in a second volume.

Life of St. Edmund of Abingdon. By Frances de

Paravicini. (Burns & Gates.)

IT is hard to notice a book like this without trench- ing on the (to us) forbidden domain of theology. It will be deemed an edifying book or otherwise according to the mental predisposition of the reader. If he can bring to it a mediaeval cast of mind, which finds no difficulty in believing that a miraculous order of things could and did prevail here in England in the thirteenth century which cannot and does not prevail in the nineteenth, he will think it profitable reading. It is the first step which makes the others possible. An able man like Cardinal Newman could believe that a peren- nial flow of medicinal oil exuded from the relics of a St. Walburga ; but it is not given to every one to have a faith so robust others might say a credulity so sickly.

As a boy Edmund plighted his troth to the Blessed Virgin, and wedded her by proxy by placing a ring upon the finger of her statue, which (as is customary in such cases) forcibly retained the ring, so that it could not be removed, and thus his vow was mani- festly accepted. While he was yet a child the Saviour appeared to him in the fields as an infant with his name written legibly upon his brow, and promised him that if he only would write the same upon his own forehead every night he would never die a sudden death. The "lonesome tree" at Abingdon, preserved by Divine guardians to this day, still marks the spot of the holy apparition. We are rather shocked to hear that " when he read in the Schooles he was assisted by an Angell in the shape of a beautifull yong man." Was this quite fair? He was seen to say his prayers "raised a great space from the ground." Moderns, we believe, call this " levitation." A dark rain-cloud which threatened an open-air service at which St. Edmund was preaching, and rather spoiled the congregation, was the work of the devil. It was dispersed at once by the saint, and not a single drop fell upon those who sat out the sermon. His tomb at Pon- tigny, as might be expected, became the fruitful source of other miracles.

The prosaic facts of his life seem to be these. Edmund Rich, born at Abingdon ab9ut 1185, was educated at Oxford ; became lecturer in theology at Paris ; was elevated to the throne of Canterbury in 1234 ; died at Soissy in 1240 ; and was canonized four years afterwards by Innocent IV. Apart from

polemics, there is much that is beautiful and saintly, if ascetic, in the devoted life of the good archbishop. Miss Paravicini has evidently found her work a labour of love, and had no wish to be critical. In collecting her materials she has used the four most ancient MS. sources which are available.

My Horse, my Love. By Sara Buckman-Linard.

(Fisher Unwin.)

THIS rhapsody concerning the horse reaches us from America, and is supposed to be inspired by a Polish count who escaped from imprisonment in Russia. It has a great deal to say that is sensible as well as sentimental concerning the treatment of horses, and it teaches the necessary, and now, happily, fashionable, lesson of merciful treatment to animals. We are sometimes, however, a little startled by some of its statements. It supplies some capital pictures of animals included in what is called the " Crabbet Arabian Stud."

A Very Seasonable Kalendar for 1899 has been compiled by Misses Andrea Jonsson and Louella C. Poole, and issued in Boston, U.S., from 457, Shaw- mut Avenue, with illustrations by Miss Fannie S. Montague. It is wholly Shakspearean and very interesting to Shakspeare worshippers.

WE have received from Prof. Candy, of Fox Hill, Norwood, the first and second books of Phonetic Writing. We do not possess the type for giving his spelling, though we are urged to obtain it. We content ourselves by announcing that the opuscules can be obtained from Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, and have nothing more to say concerning a plan that is wholly outside our sympathies.

THE Guild of Handicraft at Essex House, 401, Mile End Road, have purchased the plant and presses of the Kelmscott Press, and have made arrangements with members of the late William Morris's staff with a view to continue the fine traditions which Morris revived. New type is being designed by Mr. C. R. Ash bee.

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