Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/361

 9* s. vi. OCT. is, loco.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 299 particulars of this interesting office. In most other places in England the same Latin word is used with reference to the usher of the local grammar school. If Col. Fishwick will look at his Greek dictionary he will see that the word has nothing to do with horses. On p. 211 we are told of s schoolmaster who, in 1764, excited the wrath of the Corporation because he had voted and canvassed for a Whig candidate in 1647. Really, to a man of such remarkable age the Corporation might have shown more indulgence. One of the puzzles of the book is the way in which Col. Fishwick always refers to Domesday Book. It surely cannot be that in this year of grace 1900, when such books as Mr. Round's and Prof. Mait- land's are in every library—not to mention Mr. Farrer's learned paper recently printed by, we think, a Manchester society —any one can be found speaking of the Domesday "caracute" in Lancashire aa though it were a measurement of area. On p. 26 Col. Fishwick is good enough to " modernize " some English of Dr. Kuerden's. For our part we should prefer to have Dr. Kuerden's wording. We quote the following as an example of Col. Fishwick's idea of modern English:—"4. Also that no Burgess' son whose father is made burgess by our Court Roll and out of our Guild Merchant that it be not lawful to none born to be free in other freedoms or liberties that belong to the fran- chise of our town, nor his oath to be taken in our courts until he has purchased his freedom at our mayor-court as his father did before." Or rule 13: " Also the Mayor &c. have ordained that no burgess or other man shall no sheep nor gayte nor scabbed horses in our fields, nor in our common pasture on pain of one penny." We can only ask, in conclusion, How comes it that, with innumerable fresh sources of information at hand, a man of Col. Fishwick's standing can be content to give us, in an untrustworthy and care- less form, materials which are available already in printed books, such as are possessed by any respectable library in the county? THK Library Journal for August is devoted to the conference of librarians held at Montreal, and contains many treatises of practical value to those who are interested in the education of the citizens of the United States and of Canada. Amongst these are articles on the rise and growth of Canadian literature, on the essentials of a good library law, and on co-operative cataloguing. THE later numbers of the Intermddiaire are, it is needless to say, full of information helpful to the student of man and manners. Under the date 30 August an article appears asking how a descend- ant in the male line of one of the " anciennca maisons souveraines" of Ireland may obtain autho- ritative recognition of the rank due to him, and of the various titles which were borne by his ancestors. It would appear that the questioner regards the old-time kings and other dignitaries of various districts in the Emerald Isle as holding a position strictly analogous with that of the modern sovereigns who owe their honours more or less directly to the upgrowth and decline of the feudal system or to kindred evolutionary development. But is not this a mistake? The chief rulers of ancient Irish or Scandinavian kingdoms can scarcely be considered royal in the modern sense. They were kings as the heads of certain unimportant states or tribes beyond the limits of Europe are kings; but their position cannot be likened to that of a European monarch of to-day without doing violence to history. READERS of the Fortnightly will not readily emerge from the atmosphere of gloom produced by the three opening articles on 'The Burden of Empire,' 'Socialism and Anarchism,' and 'Our Military Prestige Abroad.' Our concern, how- ever, in 'N. 4 Q.' is not with these things, and we will pass on to Mr. Frazer's 'The Satur- nalia and Kindred Festivals.' This article and a second which is to follow are taken—with some compression, as we suppose—from the forthcoming second edition of 'The Golden Bough,' a book for the appearance of which we eagerly wait. It is not to be expected that we can give the gist of a paper such as this to which all students of folk- lore and primitive cult will inevitably turn. There is a great deal of conjecture in the article, especially in the latter portion, in which the identity of Semi- ramis with Astarte, otherwise Ishtar, is maintained. What is said about the relation between the King of the Saturnalia, the Bishop of Fools, the Abbot of Unreason, and other mediaeval characters, and the carnival of to-day is of deep interest, as is, indeed, the entire essay. M. Maeterlinck's rhapsody—for as such, to some extent, wo regard it—on ' The King- dom of Matter' has been translated by Mr. Alfred Sutro. It deserves study as a movement towards the higher life, and it advocates the substitution of vegetable for animal diet and the consequent abstinence from alcohol. It draws, moreover, pleasant pictures of " the peasant who, instead of carousing at the beerehop. spends a peaceful Sunday at home, with a book, beneath the trees of his orchard,' and other similar beings. It does not pretend, however—still less does it convince—that such things are near at hand. Lady Jeune writes on ' The Decay of the Chaperon,' and Mr. Edward Dicey depicts Lord Russell of Killowen as we our- selves recall him.—In the Nineteenth Century the Warden of Merton deals with us as ' A Nation of Amateurs.' Incidentally, the article thus spe- ciously headed deyelopes into a plea (one of many) for army reorganization and reform. ' Concerning Petitions and Electioneering Pledges' gives some humorous stories. A woman, presumably asked to sign a petition concerning marriage with a deceased wife's sister, said, "Sign my name? Not if I know it. John the Baptist, lost his head for that. I '11 have nothing to do with it." Two articles on China succeed each other. The first, by Sir Henry Blake, consists of notes and impressions of a tour in the country; the second, by Prof. Max Miiller, is on the religion of Taoism. Mr. Oswald Crawfurd contributes ' Nietzsche : an Appreciation.' Of the attempts since the death of Nietzsche to render his message comprehensible to English readers, this seems the most intelligent. A stronger hold upon German thinkers than upon English is exercised by this pupil—for such, to some extent, he is—of Schopenhauer, who affirms " an ethical basis which is so far original and startling that it is in direct contradiction to every code of morals current during the last three thousand years, whether Christian, Mahomedan, Buddhist, or pagan." Mr. C. Oman contradicts the opinions expressed recently by Sir Herbert Maxwell concerning'The Dutch-Belgians at Waterloo.' Mr. M. H. Witt