Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/362

 300 NOTES AND QUERIES. p» s. vi. OCT. 13,1900. writes on 'Five New Pictures in the National Gallery." Writers of criticisms on pictures have a style of their own, and are not to be judged by ordinary mortals. Mrs. Henry Birchenough wants a new war poet. We sincerely wish we could meet her requirements, especially as her standard does not seem very high. Dr. Hely Hutchinson Almond has some sensible observations on 'The Breed of Man.' Mr. James Boyle, the United States Consul at Liverpool, deals with 'An American Presiden- tial Campaign.' Sir Wemyss Reid continues ' The Newspapers.'—The frontispiece to the Pail Mall consists of a fanciful and original design by Mr. H. Granville Fell presenting Autumn. Lady Mid- dleton gives a capital description of VVollaton Hall, illustrated from photographs. Some of the views in the park and by the lake are excellent, as are, indeed, those of the lime avenue and the rosary. Mr. H. C. Marillier has a good paper on ' The Vale Press and the Modern Revival of Printing." ' A Day at Dartmoor," by Major Arthur Griffiths, is very readable, and Miss Nesbit's 'The Water- works' is one of the best of her delightful pictures of child ways. ' The Reaper," by Mr. Wilson Patten, is mystical rather than beautiful. A good repro- duction is given of 'La Femme & 1'Eventail of Velasquez, from the Hertford House Collection. In' Ex-Libris' Mr. Henley writes saucily concerning ' Great Poetry."—Scribnera opens with an excellent account of ' The Russia of To-day," by Mr. Henry Norman. Letterpress and illustrations alike tempt one to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg. ' The Last Days of Pretoria" is readable, though written from a strongly anti-English point of view. ' With Arctic Highlanders," by Mr. Walter A. Wyckoff, maintains the high level attained in the previous instalment. ' The Slave Trade in America' grows even more gruesome as it proceeds. Most of the stories are harrowing. It is terrible to think what humanity can become in the lust of gain. The fiction is excellent. The cover representing October is pretty.—Dr. A. Conan Doyle sends to the Cornhill Some Military Lessons of the War." 'More Humours of Irish Life" tells some excellent stories. Mr. E. H. Parker describes ' The Imperial Manchu Dynasty." 'Fighting a Privateer," by Henry Senior, depicts some genuine experiences of a sufficiently trying kind during pur naval war with America. ' An Early Romanticist,' by Miss Clara Thomson, describes Thomas Edwards, the critic and sonneteer, whose claim to the title we could, " an we would," dispute. His castigation of Warburton deserves to be remembered, but his sonnets are naught. 'A Tribute of Blood" is a terrible record of the slaughter of Napoleon's Swiss and Bavarian troops. Dr. A. W. Ward describes sympathetically ' The Girlhood of Queen Louisa," one of the most unfortunate of ladies. Mr. Cornish's ' Dogs that Earn their Living' is excellent.—In Temple Bar Mr. H. M. Sanders, writing on ' The Poems of Ben Jonson, is appreciative, but says "it is safe to assume " that only a small proportion of the readers of Stevenson's ' Underwoods" knew from whom he avowedly "stole" the title. We should have thought otherwise, and supposed that there was no man who would read Stevenson's ' Underwoods' that did not know the lines ' To Cynthia,' " Drink to me only with thine eyes," and other poems of Jonson. Mr. W. S. Durrani writes on ' Waltham Abbey and its Associations,' and Miss Benvenuta Solomon on ' Pope as a Painter.' She has, like ourselves, seen his portrait of Betterton at Caen Wood, which she calls Kenwood. Miss Alicia Cameron Taylor describes ' Volterra.'—' The Last English Rebellion," by Mr. John Hyde, tells, in the Gentleman's, a story that would be comic but for its horrible termination. What times the beginning of the century were! ' A Picturesque Rogue' is Deacon Brodie, immortalized by Steven- son and Mr. Henley. ' Caged in France' should have opened with an account of Loches and its prisoner. —The English Illustrated has a pretty and gay cover. Its prose contents include a continuation of 'The Story of the Duel," Part II., 'The Chinese Conquest of Central Asia," 'The late King of Italy and his Consort," and ' How the Navy is Fed.'—Very interesting and Apropos inLmigman'sis the account of ' The Capture of Cape Town." Miss E. M. Griffiths is amusing in ' A Study of School Jokes.' Mr. Lang is at his best in 'At the Sign of the Ship.' THE death of the Marquis of Bute, on Tuesday last, will remind readers of ' N. & Q.' that he was the hero of Lord Beaconsfield's novel ' Lothair,' a key to which appeared in our columns. Mr. Froude in his sketch of Lord Beaconsfield has minimized the creation of the novelist. WE also regret to record the death, at Tunbridge Wells, of Mr. Daniel Robert Dossetor, an occasional contributor. fjtolirw to We must call special attention to the /Mowing notices:— ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. S. ("Firm and erect the Caledonian stood").— By John Home, author of ' Douglas.' In Campbell's 'Life of Lord Lough borough' ('Lives of the Chan- cellors,' vi. 29) it is stated that excellent claret was drawn from the cask at the rate of eighteenpence the quart, and that the extinction of the " Poker " Society (a pro-militia association at Edinburgh) was effected by the tax on French wines (circa 1767), which doubled its price. Hence the joke of John Home, 'N. & Q.,' 3rd S. viii. 39.-Archibald Bell the Cat was the title of Archibald Douglas, the great Earl of Angus, who died in 1514. The story is told by Scott in his 'Tales of a Grandfather," xxii., that when Lauder told the fable of the mice who proposed to bell the cat to a council of Scotch nobles, met to declaim against one Cochr.cn, Douglas started up and exclaimed in thunderous tones, " I will." CORRIGENDA. — In the last query on p. 211 "Hongun," " hangr," and "Hongenai" should be respectively Hougun, hauyr, and Jfougenai; p. 256, col. 2, 1. 32, for " pernu " read pennu. NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries'"—Advertise- ments and Business Letters to "The Publisher"— at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.