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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MAEOH 31, 1900.

nerisms. As a stylist Carlyle has his place apart ; but it is unsafe for any one to imitate him.

The minuteness of detail into which Mr. Douglas enters must make his work an authority for the future. Regarded simply as literature, it will not take so high a place ; out that is a very small matter for those whose chief craving is for the facts of history, not for the flowers of rhetoric. "The Race 01 Dunbar" is, however, very well described. The romantically pathetic tale is told in a more lifelike manner than, so far as we remem- ber, it has ever been told before. The pages describ- ing the causes of the quarrel between Independent England and Presbyterian Scotland are also excel- lent. There have been those who have presumed to air their views on this subject who failed to see anything beyond mere ambition in Cromwell and those he led. Persons who hold foolish notions of this sort might, it is possible, be benefited by a study of what Mr. Douglas has to tell ; but then they are just the kind of folk who cherish ignorance too fondly to be willing to have it dissipated.

The Library. Edited by J. Y. W. MacAlister, F. S. A.

Second Series. Nos. I. and II. (Kegan Paul &

Co.)

A GREAT improvement continues to be perceptible in the Library now that it appears as a quarterly instead of as a monthly, and it may at present take rank with the best European periodicals of its class. The first two numbers open with memoirs and portraits of eminent "bookmen" a comprehensive term, intended to include private collectors, librarians, and bibliographers. First of these stands Dr. Richard Garnett, whose portrait, now as familiar as that of a reigning actress, accompanies a short and trust- worthy memoir. Second on the list comes Mr. Richard Copley Christie, ex - Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, and, while his health lasted, a frequent and invaluable contributor to our columns. His portrait, a striking likeness, is from a painting by Mr. T. B. Kennington, subscribed for by his friends at Owens College. It forms for his friends a pleasant reminder of one of the most diligent and exact of scholars. Other brightly illustrated articles, to some of which previous refer- ence has been made, include ' The Decorative Work of Gleeson White,' by Mr. E. F. Strange ; M. De- lisle's ' Discovery of Long-Missing Pictures,' with a beautifully executed plate, being one of the leaves missing from the famous Macon MS. of the ' Cite" de Dieu'; 'Woodcuts in English Plays printed

Bindings with Little Gidding Stamps,' by Mr. Cyril Davenport. Further papers of high interest are by M. H. Belloc on 'The Catalogue of Danton's Library ' ; on ' Early Spanish- American Printing,' by Dr. Garnett ; ' Books printed at Sea,' by Mr. G. F. Barwick ; ' The Edinburgh Edition of Sidney's " Arcadia," ' by Mr. Henry R. Plomer ; and ' Incuna- bula at Grenoble,' by Mr. R. Proctor. An account of John Ruskin, by Mr. Spielmann, reproduces in facsimile a letter of the great writer. Many papers are on American subjects, and the work is likely to be held in equal esteem in two continents.

WE have received the second part of Books, Tracts, &c., printed in Dublin in the Seven- teenth Century, by Mr. E. R. McC. Dix (Dublin,

O'Donaghue & Co. ; London, Dobell), a valuable jontribution to Dublin bibliography to which we lave already drawn attention. To the present part aroclamations and broadsides are wisely added. Mr. C. W. Dugan, M.A., adds notes on books and writers, the value of which it is difficult to over- estimate. As the entries end with 1650, it may perhaps be supposed that half the work has appeared. The descriptions are praiseworthily full, and the home of the copy dealt with is given. Overbury's 'Wife 'is the first work mentioned in the present part. Edmund Spenser's 'View of Ireland ' is more than once reprinted, and we find associated with more important works Thomas Randolph's ' Aristippus ; or, the Joviall Philosopher.'

CORRIGENDUM. We regret that by some mental confusion the death of Sir Francis Walsingham is said, in the review of Mr. Dasent's 'Acts of the Privy Council' (ante, p. 159), to have occurred at the age of ninety. Walsingham 's real age at the time or his death in 1590 is supposed to have been about sixty.

WE regret to record the death in his eighty- second year of Mr. Thomas Bird, J.P., chairman of the Romford Urban Council, which took place at his residence, Canons, North Street, Romford, on the 23rd inst. Mr. Bird was an acknowledged authority upon the antiquities of the locality, and a prominent member of the Essex Archaeological Society and the Essex Field Club. He was also for many years connected with the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, and was a fre- quent contributor to our columns.

10

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