Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/145

 ess. v1.Au<>. 11,l9(D.l NOTES AND QUERIES. 119 myself, of Dr. Arne appeared in Britannia for July. I do so because I wish to invite criticism of my attempt to fix 26 May, 1710, as the date of his birth. Having a fuller biography of Arne in contemplation, I shall value any unpublished information or docu- ments that readers of ‘ N. & Q.’ can give me. E. RIMBAULT DIBDIN. Morningside, Sudworth Road, New Brighton. yimllsurmxs. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The Council of Constance to the DeaHz of John Hua. By J. H. Wylie, M.A. (Longmans & Co.) THE Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in the Lent Term of the present year_are here gathered into a volume, and present a vivid and effective picture of the events that led up to the famous Council and the intrigues which em- broiled its rotracted sessions. he author has taken laudable pains to familiarize himself with the contem rary records of Meistermann, Persona, Peter of Mlllidenowicz, Prato and Slecht, as well as with the ofiicial Acta preserved in the voluminous tomes of Mansi and an der Hardt. VVe have, accordingly, a graphic narrative, full of those minute touches and personal details which only the original researcher can command, and the result is that Si ° mund and the shifty Pope John XXIII. move agdut the stage of the history like men of flesh and blood, and not as wooden marionettes. Mr. Wylie betrays an uneasy conscience with regard to the literary style in which he presents his work, and deprecates criticism on the score that he cannot help it being bizarre and slipshod at times so that we must eave it or take it just as it is. But surelyia very moderate amount of self- control would ave saved us from such phrases as these: “ The jumpy heart” of the true researcher (p. 5), “ His glib tongue could .mite a loan ” (P. 17). ‘ a vertigo o shouts ’ (p. 59), “a tri-vided aith” (p. 125); and would have suppressed such puerile gauds as “ the bullies that had the preparation of the bulls” (E. 49), “show off their s apely shanks and shiny s ees” {p. 60). Sometimes, indeed, Mr. Wylie grows invo vedly enigmatical, and we only dimly surmise his meaning when he says, “The Venetians had been making horns of iron to let the wind into the whole wor d” (p. 9); and declares of a lover of knowledge that he “had run with- out weariness into the odour of her ointments." Again, Mr. VVylie is not happy when commenting on Sigismunds attempt to make himself ‘°Rex su r grammaticam ” bg' construing schisma as mas- culiiie, and his peevis complaint to the Council, “ You make me of less account than Priscian.” It is not, “ as we should say, than A. B.C.',” but rather than Lindley Murray, or the popular grammarian of the day. Swv-sex Archeological Collections. Vol. XXXIX. (Lewes, Farncombe & Co.) THIS is an excellent volume. Of padding there is little or none, and the writers one and al seem to have been careful to exclude needless verbiage. This is no small merit, for, as many of our readers must have long ago discovered, it is far from un- common for local antiquaries, when they come upon anything new to themselves, to arrive instantly at the by no means necessary conclusion that it has never been heard of by any one else. Mr. J. Lewis André’s article on chancel screens is a most useful contribution. It deals almost, but not solely, with the screens that are now, or have been in recent times, in the Sussex churches. VVe say “ have been,” for he has a heartrending tale to te 1 of wanton mutilation and destruction occurring in quite modern days under the name of restoration. Some people have a fancy that a chancel arch must necessarily have once existed in every church, and if they do not find one, forthwith set their wits and the stonemasons to work to supply what they regard as a deficiency. We know a painful example of this delusion, ali e on the part of the vicar and the architect, which was the cause of a beautiful church in an Eastern county being shamefully mutilated, and a simple and well-preserved Per- pendicular screen being cast away. To supaily the place of what never existed the two invente some- thing which looks for all the world like the entrance to an ornate restaurant. Mr. André gives a list of several churches whose builders dispensed with an arch, in which the distinction between nave and choir depended solely upon the screen. Those who are interested in the history of Roman Britain should not fail to make themselves ac- guainted with the Rev. F. H. Amold’s pager on The Corn Supply of the South Coast in ritish and Roman Times.’ VVithout professing to accept every one of the writer’s conclusions, we are bound to say that he has thrown much light on a most obscure subject. Major At-tree’s lists of the Sussex gentry at various dates will be of service to genealogists and students of heraldry, as well as to man others. They begin in 1411, and are continued to 581. We are, however, sorry that the writer has not given among them the list of justices of the peace for 1650, which furnishes a valuable catalogue of the Puritan entry, and also that of 1660, issued before the ltestoration, when all things were in a state of transition. Both these lists were published in pamphlet form, and are of great rarity, but they may be seen in the British Museum. The Cavalier Soldiefs Vafie-Mecum. Reproduced gigaesimile by Edward Almack, F.S.A. (Blades o. Mn. ALMACK was fortunate enough) to discover, a couple of years ago, a volume of a ut thirty pafes which is supposedly unique, and to which no re er- encc is discovcrable in literature. It is a small book of prayer and praise for the soldiers in the Cavalier army, and as such forms an acceptable addition to the ‘Eikon Basilike,’ the bibliography of which Mr. Almack has written. This work he has had reissued in facsimile, with an introduction and notes by himself, comprising a reduced reproduc- tion of the engraving o ‘ The Battle of Naseby,’ by “ the little Frenchmen,” which serves as frontis- piece; Hollar’s bust *portrait of Charles I., from certain editions of t e ‘Eikon Basilike’; and a icture of Charles I. giving his last advice to the grince of Wales. This facsimile, which is admirably executed and is in a beautiful cover, is welcome if onl as acounterblast to the reproductions of Crom- well’s Soldiers’ Bibles &c. It shows that the Com- monwealth men had no monopoly of piety or devotion. It draws largely upon the Psalms,