Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/189

 9'i>s. v. MAKOHio,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

181

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 10. 1900

CONTENTS.-No. 115.

NOTES : Waverley Novels, 181 Mail Shirts from the Sudan, 183 Arms of Peeresses Form of Intercession, 184 Kruger's Counterfeit Coin The Fateful Pockethand- kerchief " Blizzard "Lyddite Bozier's Court Dickens and Sterne, 185 First British Lighthouse -" Patty Moon's Walk "Gipsies in England, 186.

QUERIES :' Letters on the English Nation '" Rotatory calabash," 186 -Russell Family Nehemiah Wellington Thomas St. Nicholas Registers of Trinity Chapel Por- trait of Admiral By ng Guild of St. John the Baptist, Dunstable "La fe endrycza al sobieran ben " Sir C. Cartaret, 187 George Delaval Dr. R. Uvedale Alum Trade Sir John Maundeville Portrait of Ussher " Ivers " " February Fill-Dyke " Rochester Family Browning's ' Paracelsus 'Warren Lisle, 188 "Step," 189.

REPLIES : Eighteenth-Century 'History of England' Mr. Gladstone's Height, 189 Silhouettes of Children 'New Critical Review 'Army Rank, 190" Jesso "Men wearing Earrings " Boer " Salmon Disease " To Priest "London Church Registers, 191 Virgil's Epitaph John Thurbane, 192 -Venn: Mountfort Edgett, 193 "Doctor" "Vine," 194 Hannays of Kirkdale " Com- parisons are odious" " Out of print" Old Age at Fifty On the Word " Up," 195-Earls of St. Pol Old Wooden Chest Whiskers, 196 Coins in Foundation Stones Lincolnshire Saying The Jubilee Number Les Detenus, 197 Helen Faucit and Margaret Gillies Toad Mugs- Bible originally written in Dutch. 198.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Beeching's 'Poetical Works of Milton ' Tomlinson's ' Life of Charles Tomlinson ' Shaw's 'Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers' 'The Archko Volume '' Antiquary, ' Vol. XXXV. Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

EARLY ISSUES OF THE WAVERLEY

NOVELS.

THIS is a rather interesting matter, from the attraction of the earliest editions, and the exceptional artistic grace with which they are designed. Modern editions of Scott, as well as of Dickens and Thackeray, can never offer the easy spontaneousness of the old ones. The shape was directed by " the form and pressure " of the author him- self ; while the reproductions of our day always have an artificial air, and do not belong to the old period. What, for instance, could be more "heartless" (Elia's term) than the library set of Thackeray's stories, with its pale, feeble-looking print ? I do not know any better addition to the pleasures of the " Waverleys " than to read them in the actual original editions, all more or less finely printed and " designed " by the worthy Ballantyne. The feeling of reading in these " original " edi- tions is hard to analyze, and may be thought fanciful enough. But it is based on the idea, that the book was the one that had passed through the hands of the author himself, of which the proofs had been set right by him, and which was generally acceptable to him. The old type, the old paper, binding, c.,

are of his era, and in harmony with his style. These very volumes had been thumbed by rapturous admirers, who had contended for them, and who guessed at the Great Unknown. There is something, by the way, enticing and correct also, in the simple, marbled yellow, half -bound "jackets" of Scott's works. They are simple and yet effective in this garb. * The Tales of a Grand- father' are nearly always found thus dressed. We look with interest on 'Waverley,' which, in its eighth edition, is now open before me. It is a good, well-printed, business-like piece of work. The paper is a little tinged with age, each page naving twenty-four lines, the printing rather " rough," but bold. The first edition is very rare and priced high at some eight or ten pounds. Yet all the rest "the whole set," in fact may be had for three pounds or so minus, of course, the first Waverley.' For the first issue, in three volumes, the type was apparently "kept standing " ; for there were numbers of editions, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, which did not differ. At first merely the name of the story was used as a headline ; in two or three instances the headline was the subject of the chapter. Gradually, how- ever, the good bold fashion of printing was

longer line and larger page were adopted, with a rather poor type. Some were printed in octavo, and then there was a reversion to the " twelves."

One is astonished to note how small these volumes were as compared with a modern, full-blown, three-volume novel. They were very handy, but gradually grew year by year. There has been a complete change in the format of novels. When Scott began his series it was simply a handy pocket volume, which the reader could take about with him. I have a complete set of Miss Austen's works, first editions all, and they are of this small size, each page containing not more than 20 lines or 200 words. By the fifties the novel had grown into large octavo size, each page containing over 300 words. It would be interesting to discuss the causes of this development, but I have not space here.

The fashion now is and has been in the case of a popular story by a writer such as Boz to multiply impressions of the same text according to the demand. The type is moulded and kept standing. Every copy is the same until the time arrives for cheaper or more convenient forms. But in Scott's case his publishers were constantly devising