Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/600

 500 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9-s. VL DM. a. woo. great collections, public and private, and to docu- ments bearing on the subject. She has written, accordingly, a work both instructive and autho- ritative, and one which will enlarge the bounds of our knowledge. She has been well supported by her publishers, and the reproductions in photo- gravure are of remarkable excellence. Her two works on last-century French art constitute a pleasant portal into a land of delight. We hear a whisper to the effect that two further volumes, dealing with decorative art and furniture, will appear in the same series. Extracts from Registers and Records relating to the Collation, Institution, Induction, and Composition of the Rectors of High ffalden, in the County of Kent, in the Diocese of Canterbury, lSSt-1899. THIS interesting pamphlet of sixty-two pages has been privately printed for Mr. Wynford I '•. Grimaldi at the Salvation Army Press. It contains a body of useful information as to the parish to which it relates. Some of it, we believe "has not appeared in print before; but Mr. Grimaldi might have made it more useful if he had added biographical notes relating to the several rectors. As to those who lived in early times it is probable that nothing can be recovered, but research would have revealed something, we imagine, relative to those who held the living in more recent days. A certain Martin Roberth was instituted to the living in 1509, and the editor, having found a Thomas Kobertis de- scribed as rector of Halden in the ' Valor Eccle- siasticus,' suggests that his name may have been Thomas Martin Roberth. We are not in a position to confute this, but it is extremely improbable. Double Christian names, though not quite unknown, were extremely uncommon in those days. It is more probable that the entries relate to two different men, or that the scribe, in one case or the other, made a blunder. Sometimes the Latin documents are not printed with the amount of accuracy which modern scholarship demands. The Flora of Bournemouth, by E. F. Linton, M. A. (Bournemouth, Conimin), is an admirable account of the flowering plants and ferns which can be seen and plucked (not to extermination, we hope, when they are rare) within a twelve - mile radius of Bournemouth. A careful piece of work like this, recording the results of many specialists, is worthy of high commendation: we only wish that more of the many lovers of flowers would gather their results together for other districts. All that we have to say in the way of criticism is that some of the terminology is odd. We thought that every- body had settled to call the white water-lily Nymphcea alba, and we see no valid reason why its title should be changed to Castalia speciosa. We cannot yield to the nomenclature of the ' London Catalogue* (ninth ed.); we regard, and we think most botanists will endorse our opinion, the ' Flora' of Bentham and Hooker, which is on our shelves, as the best guide. Another small point. Surely it is not necessary to write out the habitat in detail of such common plants as Caltha paluttris and Nasturtium officinal™. There are many rare things recorded that we should like to see; but as in many cases they are undoubted "escapes," we doubt if they will survive like their commoner and autochthonous neighbours. WE have received Mr. Charles W. Button's paper on the Special Collection* of Sookt in Lancashire and Cheshire, which was read last year before the Library Association of Manchester. The subject is interesting, and the writer has gained an amount of knowledge regarding it which it is given to few to possess. Book collections, by some natural law which we do not profess to have interpreted even to ourselves, have a tendency to gather in the neighbourhood of great centres of material industry. It is well it should be so, for their influence, though silent, must be great among those who surround them. Mr. Sutton's list cannot be regarded as complete—very few things in this world are so— but we confess that we are unable to add to it. It is a striking catalogue, because it illustrates, in a way few other things can do, what Robert Burton would have called "unity in diversity." Some men have devoted their time to collecting local books, others to first editions of the works of those who have made themselves memorable; and there are others—and for them we must express entire sympathy, though they are often treated with something like contempt — who have striven to collect everything, good and bad, relating to a particular class of subjects. It requires more ex- perience than most persons have acquired to grasp the idea that a book or pamphlet which may be worthless from many points of view may yet be useful as illustrating the history of literature, language, or even social evolution. OUR "grumble " last week about the size of ' The Oxford Book of English Verse' is entirely disarmed by a charming edition of the collection Just sent to us by Mr. Frqwde, in which the Oxford India paper allows " infinite riches in a little room." KV must call special attention to the following 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. To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Ihiplicate." N. W. T. (" Sparrow-mumbling").—When neither the correct heading nor accurate references are given editorial difficulties are greatly augmented. CORRIGENDUM.—P. 474, col. 2,1.18 from bottom, for " card" read cord. NOTlCf. 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, K.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.