Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/169

 g* S. IX. MARCH 1, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

161

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 190?.

CONTENTS. No. 218.

NOTES : "Famous Scots," 161" Brod," 162' Dictionary of National Biography': Notes and Corrections, 163 Holts at, Winchester Georges I .-IV. "Double Joes," 14 " Shinnanickin' " : " Hannicrochemens," 15 Por- trait of Erasmus "Le premier pas "-Isle of Dogs- Amazon, 165 "Opodeldoc" " Penile" Sir H. Crom- well, 166.

QUERIES : London Library Catalogue Brook and Brookes Families Household of George III. Shakespeare's Voca- bulary Gurbs or De Gurbs Barony, 167 Huxley as Reviewer Hymn of St. Peter Damiani "Cissura Roba- rnm Wallensium " Arms of Le Neve Foster Titian's 1 Sacred and Profane Love ' ' Sweet Richard ' * La Blanche Fee ' Parish Registers, 168 J. D. Acland Descent of the Tsar Sir W. Damsell Apple-tree Folk- lore, 169.

REPLIES : Henry VIII., 169 'Palatine's Daughter' Sarpi's 'Letters Staun ton, Worcestershire, 170-SirG. Fenton Black Armlet Bristow Bibliography of Bicycle Earl of Cromartie. -171 Split Infinitive " Stream of tendency" Dickensiana, 172 Portraits of Early Lord Mayors Line of Browning James the Deacon, 173 The Mitre, 174 Fleetwood Miniature Crispe Desborough Portraits Duels -Heyford School Rules " With affection beaming "Black Bottles for Wine Musicians' Company The Feast and the Reckoning, 175" High-faluting "- Parentage of Caesar Borgia Moat's ' Stenography ' The Earth Mother, 176 " Single-Speech" Hamilton Filbert English in the Last Crusade Aeronautics, 177 Milton : Tract on Logic Herrick : Silver-pence, 178.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Coleridge's 'Poetry of Byron,' Vol. V Lord Ronald Gower's 'Tower of London' Shaw's ' Essays and Papers of Richard Copley Christie ' Lamb's 'King and Queen of Hearts ' Keane's 'Gold of Ophir.'

Dr. S. R. Gardiner.

Notices to Correspondents.

"FAMOUS SCOTS."

IN the December number of the Pall Mall Magazine Mr. W. E. Henley somewhat rudely dispels cherished illusions regarding the late Mr. R. L. Stevenson. Apparently there are two main points in Mr. Henley's contention : (1) Stevenson was in large measure the crea- tion of Mr. Henley ; and (2) the designer is dissatisfied with the admiration now lavished on what he calls "this faultless, or very nearly faultless, monster." In the fashioning process there was no aiming at monstrous results at all, but now, apparently, we have a vivid illustration of the tendency in ill- considered transactions to come home to roost. Mr. Henley will not recognize the Stevenson that never returned from America, because that is not the finished product which, in his own words, " I knew, and loved, and laboured with and for, with all my heart and strength and understanding." One recalls the supreme agony of Frankenstein, simi- larly wrestling with the tortures supervening on the untoward development of his strange creation. He, too, was cruelly exercised by the unexpected wonders that sprang up in

the wake of his "very nearly faultless mon- ster " after that agent had fairly struck out on his own account. He fled afar, and made every effort to avoid him, but his sin was prone to find him out even in the uttermost parts of the earth. He exhausted his ingenuity in dis- covering every possible contiguity of shade that would hide him, and every vast wilder- ness in which he might roam in lonely misery ; but the creature of his heart and strength and understanding was ubiquitous, hopelessly present, even as mocking Care that sits behind the horseman. Mr. Henley, too, struggles to get free from Stevenson, but finds him in constantly recurring biographies, monographs, estimates, and what not. He avoids his books those painful products of the hard toil by which he nourished their author into strength and he seeks the pleasant shades of Lamb and Hazlitt, the romantic retreats of Scott and Thackeray and Dickens, nay even the universe of Shake- speare itself, only to find that his efforts are all in vain. R. L. S. is with him, and will not be denied, and the world is now asked to sympathize with his mourning.

Meanwhile trustful souls have accepted Mr. Henley and certain journalistic henchmen as impeccable prophets on their own showing, and have duly completed the solemn apo- theosis of Mr. R. L. Stevenson. Mr. Henley's abortion has been formally and triumphantly exalted into high places. Not only have cousins and others written his biography, as one of those whose burial-place Pericles declared to be the world, but his school- fellows have been allowed to blossom into purring authorship on the strength of intimate acquaintance, and writers of lite- rary text- books have solemnly recognized him as one of the potent forces of letters in these decadent days. If he is not a shepherd of the seals he is at least a triton of the minnows, and there is infinite pother over his inherent greatness. The publishers of a series of books under the general title of " Famous Scots " distribute a prospectus of their monographs with ornamental covering, prominent on which are prints representing the most distinguished Scotsmen of all time. To simplify identification they considerately print the names under the respective portraits, which (taken chronologically) are found to be John Knox, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and R. L. Stevenson. Thus do we find what Mr. Henley has to answer for ! It is not as a man of letters only that this " nearly faultless monster " wins distinction here, but it is as a representative Scotsman. The series, of which he and his compeers are taken to be