Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/267

 9*s.v.MABCH3i,i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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work, this third volume contains an animated account of the wars between the French, the Spaniards, and the Dutch, in which D'Artagnan took part, and in which he lost his life, being slain by a bullet wound in the throat while leading the Guards at the siege of Maestricht. In these, as in preceding pages, visits of D'Artagnan to London on the part of Mazarin and Louis are described, and the account of English affairs, though displaying a strong bias against Englishmen, natural enough under the circumstances, and considering the horror with which the death of Charles I. had inspired loyalists throughout Europe, shows D'Artagnan or his biographer to have been a man of keen per- ceptions and a strong sense of humour. The portrait of the second Charles is painted to the life. Another portrait matchless in its way is that of Mazarin. We know no other place where can be obtained so admirable a presentation of the astute, greedy old fox. At p. 140 it is said concerning this cardinal, who, of course, was an Italian, "He had learnt French, with the exception of the word ' restituer,' which he did not understand." Of his enterprise on behalf of his family, especially of the Due de Nevers, into whose post D'Artagnan ascended, much that is both readable and trustworthy is said. The arrest and imprisonment of Fouquet, undertaken with much reluctance by D'Artagnan, constitute the most valuable portion from the historical stand- point. It is obvious that D'Artagnan stood very high in the estimation of Louis, who had every reason to trust his discretion and fidelity. Our hero seems to have been dazzled by the splendour of the Roi Soleil, whose beauty and grandeur he celebrates without much appearance of servility. The com- pleted work may be read with advantage and delight. Our only quarrel with it is the absence of an index. Mr. Nevill's translation is vivacious and satisfactory, though it is marred by some persistent mannerisms of style.

A Glossary of the Dialect of Cumberland. By E. W.

Prevost, Ph.D. (Bemrose & Sons.) INASMUCH as all special glossaries seem destined to be absorbed and swallowed up in the omnivorous maw of the great ' English Dialect Dictionary,' which is slowly digesting them at Oxford, but few now venture forth as competitors for an independent existence. Dr. Prevost, however, with a pluck which we cannot but admire, claims for one dialect at least a right to stand on its own basis in a sub- stantive volume. Taking as his groundwork the well-known glossary of the late Mr. W. Dickinson, which was published by the English Dialect Society in 1878, he has rearranged the material, and largely augmented it with illustrative quotations, which evidence a wide course of reading. While com- mending the completeness and thoroughness with which Dr. Prevost has done his work, we have two minor faults to find. The first is the common weakness of almost all provincial glossaries the inclusion of a number of colloquial and popular expressions which are used probably in every county of England such superfluous entries, we meaii, as " Angry, vexed ; applied to a sore it means inflamed; painful." The same remark applies to crony, crusty, cushat, cute, pest, swarm, thick, thick- skin't, and others. The other fault we refer to is the loose and inaccurate definitions too often given. Thus braird is defined as meaning " to spread or throw about." If a stranger were to bid a Cumberland " darraker" to " braird" the hay, he

would much wonder what lingo he was speaking. It is really a specific word, only used of the sprout- ing cereal when its first green blade begins to appear above the earth. Again, bysen is said to mean " ugly, illmade, or shameful." The quotation given is sufficient to show that it is not an adjective, but

at

ne'er ack is a mistake for never wrack (with a w). As a matter of fact, that ack in this combination is a "ghost- word" for rack, to heed or reck, was first pointed out by Dr. Palmer in his ' Third Annual Report of the English Dialect Dictionary.' We notice a somewhat similar orthographical error in santer, a story, which Dr. Prevost, following Dickin- son, gives under Aunter, in the phrase "an oald wife santer." The true form should obviously be "an old wife's aunter" (^adventure). A misprint likely to escape notice occurs on p. 51, col. 2, where it is said of two herds that they " cost a cow"; the correct word, we are pretty sure, would be coft, meaning bought. To end with a word of praise : Dr. Prevost shows a discreet and unusual self-restraint in for- bearing to indulge in any etymological speculations with regard to the words he registers, and for this reticence we thank him. It should be added that a useful digest of the phonology and grammar of the dialect, by Mr. S. D. Brown, is prefixed to the glossary.

Carlisle : its Cathedral and See. By C. King Eley.

(Bell & Sons.)

THE cathedral church of Carlisle, the northernmost of the great English shrines, and the latest addition to Bell's " Cathedral Series," is smaller in size and inferior in beauty and interest to almost all of its southern sisters. Its superb east window and its Early English choir will always commend it to stu- dents of English ecclesiastical architecture. There is, however, some justness in the criticism passed upon it by officers who in 1634 visited this and other English ecclesiastical edifices. It is, said they, "more like a great wilde country church" than a fair and stately cathedral. Thomas Fuller, on the contrary, with reference to the influence upon it of fire, speaks of it characteristically as "black but comely." Mr. Eley's account of this edifice has obviously been a labour of love, and is adequate to all the requirements of the visitor. With the numerous illustrations, presenting from different points of view the interior and the exterior of the edifice, is given a view of the adjacent castle. Car- lisle Cathedral possesses many quaint miserere carvings, one of which is given. These are not, so far as we trace, reproduced in Miss Phipson's admirable work on the subject (see 8 th S. x. 467). The subjects are practically the same as in other edifices, though there are some with which we are not familiar. No less warm a welcome is deserved by this than by previous volumes of the series.

Cromwell's Scotch Campaigns. 1650-1651. By W. S.

Douglas. (Stock.) ^

MB,. DOUGLAS has written a useful book on a sub- ject of great interest, which has not been hitherto investigated with the thoroughness it deserves. He is an admirer of Thomas Carlyle. Not only does he regard his statements of fact as usually to be relied upon (a matter in which we are in cordial agreement with him), but he seems to have been influenced, to his hurt, by Carlyle's man-