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Though the fragments of Ctesias form a necessary part of such a series, they are, from

their character, also necessarily the least satisfactory part of it. Probably we must make considerable allowances for the unfair impression conveyed by the extracts or abstracts given by Photius, which afford the bulk of what we possess of Ctesias; for when (as in one or two instances) the same story happens to be cited by Elian it appears in by no means so absurd a guise as in Photius. But the mass is of so little worth that we cannot doubt that the author must have been worse than indiscriminate in his reception of travellers' tales, giving, like the famous old woman of Capt. Marryat's story, the preference to false over real wonders. Even when a kernel of truth exists in the tale, it usually lies deep within such a husk of fable that it is difficult to extract. We do not succeed in finding any element of truth in such fables as that of the vast worm called skoler found in the Indus; or that of the fountain of liquid gold which also produced steel, or of that other fountain the waters of which coagulated and caused intoxication; or in the allegation that the sun appeared ten times larger in India than in other regions; or that bamboos on the Indus were so big that two men stretching their arms could not span one; or the absurd description of the beast martichōras or man-eater, &c.

female.

The male reed has

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An example of the blundering or carelessness of Photius may be seen in his extract stating that the pigmies of India "hunt hares and foxes not with dogs, but with ravens and kites and crows and vultures (p. 16). The fuller quotation given from Ælian (p. 44) says nothing of crows and vultures, though it does mention ravens along with eagles and kites as trained for sport; and in fact it gives a fair account of the process of hawking. Then we may quote one or two examples of misconception, more or less, of facts. Thus it is said that the Indian reeds (bamboos) are distinguished by sex, male and no pith (evreptúrny) and is exceedingly strong, whilst the female has a pith (p. 10). The attribution of sex to the bamboo is still popular and general in India. Species which are nearly solid, and are much used for spears and bludgeons, are called male; the commoner hollow species female. At p. 23 we have a curiously muddled account of lac and lac dye (not of cochineal, as the editor seems to think); and at p. 30 a still more transformed history, perhaps, of the preparation of otto of roses : "Its smell is the sweetest in the world, and is said to diffuse itself to a distance of five stadia." The account from Ælian of the splendid Indian cock with variegated crest and broad tail evidently and correctly applies to the munál (Lophophorus Impeyanus), as was pointed out in Col. Yule's 'Marco Polo,' and before him by Cuvier. But we are not aware that there is any ground for attributing this passage to Ctesias.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

A Western Wildflower. By Katharine Lee. 3 vols. (Bentley & Son.)

A Mother's Idol. By Lydia Hope. 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)

Fetters of Memory. By Alfred Leigh. 2 vols. (Remington & Co.)

Angeline, and other Stories. By A. M. Y. (Chapman & Hall.)

that she is able to conquer the whole house of Davenel, captain and commander-in-chief included, which she eventually does. How (Black-what end she made to her chequered career, her engagement to the idol prospered, and

The Jews of Barnow. By Karl Emil Franzos. Translated by M. W. Macdowall.

wood & Sons.)

'A WESTERN WILDFLOWER' is a very good novel of the sentimental kind. The main idea, which is not altogether original, has been happily imagined. A wild, highspirited girl, whose manners would be fast if they were not perfectly natural and innocent, comes from the Far West to live with her cousins in a Kentish rectory. She had been brought up by her father alone in the Rocky Mountains and at San Francisco until, upon his death, she made her way to England, according to his wishes. He was a man of good family who had gone off to America with a damaging suspicion against him. Upon this the action of the story is made to depend. Before the girl has been long at the rectory four young men fall in love with her, and her female cousins of course dislike her extremely. An ill-natured busybody repeats to her the story which was current about her father. She feels sure that it is untrue; but when she learns that her uncle and aunt believe it, she can no longer bear to live with them and runs away. The author has happily had the good sense not to turn the story into a tragedy. Up to the time of the heroine's running away events happen naturally and a picture of real life is presented, but afterwards it becomes necessary to resort to those marvellous coincidences which are the story-teller's stockin-trade. Every novelist is entitled to make use of them, and it cannot be said that in the present case they are made to appear unusually startling and improbable. The author's style is easy and unobtrusive, but in her narrative she is given to exaggeration. For instance, she makes a man (in great excitement, no doubt) walk over hedges and ditches without noticing them, that the heroine's footstep was so

and

says

light that it made hardly any mark on newly fallen snow. This is almost the language of Eastern poetry. The book is remarkable for the tearfulness of the characters. Nearly all of them weep. On one occasion, by the way, the girls were too frightened to cry, but they soon got over the fright sufficiently for the purpose. The heroine contrives to weep in the streets of London-not a convenient place, as the author regretfully remarks, for a good cry. But in spite of superfluous tears, there are really affecting passages in the story. The hero is not a satisfactory creation, but that is so common a failing in books written by women as to be hardly worth mentioning.

The mother's idol in Miss Hope's story is a Capt. Horace Davenel, who falls in love with the governess of his little niece, very much to his mother's annoyance. Mrs. Davenel, the wife of a worthy magistrate, keeps her house, and all that it contains, in exemplary order; she is, in fact, a commander-in-chief of the sternest type, whom no one can thwart or disobey, unless it be the object of her maternal adoration. The heroine says of her, quaintly enough, that one always had a sort of apologetic, guilty feeling in Mrs. Davenel's presence, as if one were an uncompleted effort." It is certainly much to the credit of the little governess

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may be learnt from the pages in which Miss Hope has related her experiences. The relation is simple and pleasant, though there is no attempt to soar much above the level of straightforward narrative.

Mr. Alfred Leigh tells a commonplace love story in a not too commonplace manner, and relates in rather stilted language, but with a fair perception of the motives that commonly actuate men and women, the mutual love of two young people bound together by the fetters of early association. Here and there the style is somewhat too grandiose for such a theme, even when the author's aim is to enforce the eternal character of marital love. For instance:-

"Once before they had kissed each other, but it had been in the pathetic retrospect of a concluded past, and the bitterness of a farewell believed to be eternal. Now he again clasped her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers; but this time it was as the mute avowal of an

undying constancy-of a love that should be a have disappeared like a vapour-when the deep and strong reality, when the world should light of sun, and moon, and stars should have been quenched; and the great sea with its boundless expanse of impetuous waters should have become a forgotten thing." This is the climax-as well it might be of the courtship of Mr. Leigh's hero and heroine. He leaves them to get married at their leisure; and for their sake it is to be hoped that the world does not prematurely vanish, and that the great sea is held in careful remembrance.

'Angeline' is a book of a very artless kind, suitable for almost grown-up young ladies who have been carefully reared and are docile. Unfortunately even the simplest

minds must see in each of these stories that

the moral intended to be conveyed is only

too obvious. The author seems to have

been of a different opinion, and has taken pains to state what she meant each story to teach in plain words at the end. This sort of composition is like the painting of the ancients, who, according to the Greek Delectus, indicated in writing the names of the objects represented.

We are glad to welcome an English rendering of the powerful stories of K. E. Franzos, which have already been translated into almost every other European language and even into Hebrew. Herr Franzos writes about Jews as a Jew; he describes the kind of life with which he is best acquainted; and as his characters are Galician and Polish Jews, who have not merged into the nations among whom they dwell, he has much that is new, suggestive, and instructive to relate of his co-religionists. His tales of the strange kind of existence led in the Ghetto are faithful pictures, full of deep pathos and poetical intuition. Never losing sight of the fact that he is writing for a Western public to whom the circumstances to which he refers cannot be familiar, Herr Franzos has succeeded in conveying a clear idea of the kind of life led by these social outcasts. He shows very forcibly that it is not the fault of the Polish Jews that they are less civilized than their brethren in the faith in England and France, quoting

the bon mot "Every country has the Jews it deserves." Though the book is to a certain extent polemical and the stories are written with an object, their artistic character is not thereby injured. Herr Franzos happily combines the historical with the inventive faculty. The tales are all pitched in a minor key; sadness is their distinctive feature. The history of Israel" deep-worn with suffering cannot be gay, but Herr Franzos has not over-coloured, and the picture is not allowed to become too black. Mr. Macdowall has done his work satisfactorily; it is not his fault that the stories lose some of their characteristic colour in translation. The peculiar Hebrew-German dialect of the Polish Jews, which at once marks them out as foreigners, cannot be reproduced, nor, unfortunately, can it be wholly dispensed with.

THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.

The Latin Prayer Book of Charles II.; or, an Account of the Liturgia of Dean Durel. By Charles Marshall, M. A., and William W. Marshall, B. A. (Oxford, Thornton.)-The Convocation of 1662, about two months after the approval of the revised Book of Common Prayer, ordered a translation of the book to be made in Latin, in accordance with the clause of the Act of Uniformity of that year which presupposed its existence. The persons to whom this translation was at first entrusted did not execute the commission, and the task fell into the hands of Dr. Durel, Dean of Windsor. His translation does not appear to have been ever submitted to Convocation, and most certainly was never approved or sanctioned by it. It carries with it no more

authority than the translations of King Edward's Book by Aless, or of Elizabeth's by (as it is said) Walter Haddon, or the recent version by Dr. Bright and Mr. Medd. The whole value or importance of any one or other of these consists solely in the accuracy and honesty of the translation. The present authors, therefore, might have spared themselves the pains of attempting to claim "authority" for Dr. Durel's version. Nor are the reasons which they suggest worth the slightest consideration. They bring forward as proofs the fact of the order of Convocation already spoken of; Dr. Durel's own dedication of his book to the king; and, thirdly, the series of promotions which were conferred upon him. Whether the authors are brothers does not appear, but one of them is a clergyman and was a Lord Mayor's chaplain thirty years ago; the other is "of the Inner Temple." Surely they might, between them, have avoided perpetrating such an extraordinary blunder as attributing "authority" to this translation. But the purpose of the attempt itself is not far to seek. The authors seem to be of the Evangelical school.

of earlier translations has been adopted. Indeed, the description which the Messrs. Marshall themselves give is nearly sufficiently correct :Durel "neglects literal translation in order to bring out more clearly, by a periphrasis, the actual meaning and intention [as understood by himself] of the compilers of our revised English Prayer Book."

AFTER an interval of three years the Cambridge University Press has issued Fasciculus I. of the Breviarium ad Usum Sarum, edited by Mr. Procter and Mr. Wordsworth. This first portion is a much thicker volume than the second-in fact, it runs to more than 1,500 pages, and includes the Temporale, or (6 Proper of Seasons," preceded by the Kalendar. The editors still "defer their main preface or introduction," which will, therefore, be given with the third and concluding part; and in like manner we must again put off any critical examination and account of their work. It must suffice to say now that the same care and attention as before are clearly evident, and we shall gladly congratulate them on the conclusion of an undertaking so laborious. A few notes are sparsely scattered over the pages of the Temporale; and a brief preface to the Kalendar explains that some additions have been made, filling up days which have been left vacant in the folio (from which the editors print) of 1531, by Chevallon. Of these additions, which are extremely valuable, Mr. Wordsworth says: Quædam ex ejusdem Sanctorali includenda curavi perpauca ex aliis breviariis plura insuper litteris minusculis mandavi; quæ pleraque ex Enchiridio Maskelliano 1530 deprompsi; cetera ex kalendariis missalium 1514, 1521, 1533, et Orarii 1546, commemoravi."

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THE Semitic Series of the "Anecdota Oxoniensia has made its appearance with a Rabbinical Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah, edited from MSS. in the Bodleian Library and the Ambrosian at Milan by Mr. H. J. Mathews, of Exeter College, Oxford. The editor is no stranger to Rabbinical scholars; he is favourably known by his editions of Abraham ibn Ezra's short commentaries on Canticles and Daniel, as well as by anonymous glosses, signed Zeeb," on some Biblical books. There is no need, therefore, to speak of his ability to make good use of MSS. for his editions of Rabbinical authors. We shall only give a brief summary of his learned disquisition on the authorship of this almost anonymous commentary, which is found in thirteen MSS. In most of the codices the commentary is given as anonymous, but in one it is attributed to Benjamin ben Judah, and in another to R. Saadyah Gaon. It does not require any arguments for proving that the latter rabbi cannot be the author of our commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah. Mr. Mathews shows, by comparing Benjamin ben Judah's commentaries on other Biblical books, that it is out of the question to ascribe the present commentary to this sober exegete. In the editions of the Rabbinical Bible is found a commentary on Daniel by R. Saadyah Gaon, which is generally Their publication is of no value admitted to be spurious. This is now inconwhatever except for some bibliographical in- testably proved, since the Bodleian Library has formation about a book scarcely worth the acquired large fragments in MS. of R. Saadyah trouble of inquiry; but it has served as a peg on Gaon's Arabic commentary on Daniel, which in which to hang two long disquisitions-the one to no respect agree with the Hebrew commenprove that the word "priest" in the Common tary attributed to him. Mr. Mathews shows in Prayer Book means "presbyter" in the sense his preface that this Hebrew commentary on used by Presbyterians; and the other, that Daniel, which is ascribed in nearly all the MSS. "alms and oblations" do not mean any oblation to R. Saadyah Gaon, and our present comof the bread and wine. Their volume contains mentary on Ezra and Nehemiah are by one and more than 200 pages, and more than half the book the same author. Now, since in most of the is made up of Dr. Durel's Latin version of the MSS. this commentary follows that on Daniel, Catechism, together with their own translation since also the Milan MS., which is the oldest in parallel columns, and a quantity of foot-notes. of the MSS., attributes the commentary on This 'Account of the Liturgia of Dean Durel' Ezra and Nehemiah to R. Saadyah Gaon, and rests upon such an absurd and ridiculous founda- further passages of this commentary are quoted tion that it is beneath criticism. Not only is in the name of R. Saadyah Gaon, we accept Mr. the dean's translation wanting in the requisite Mathews's ingenious conjecture that the author sanction of the proper authorities, but it is not of the commentaries on Daniel, Ezra, and even a fair translation—it is rather a paraphrase Nehemiah is a R. Saadyah, for whom the wellby a controversialist, except where the language | known R. Saadyah Gaon was substituted by

later Rabbinical authors and copyists. Let us add that the name of Saadyah is implied in the introductory lines of the MS. in the British Museum. At what epoch this Saadyah wrote and to what country he belonged Mr. Mathews rightly refrains from deciding. All that may be said with certainty is that an author who lived about 1250 A.D. quotes this Saadyah, and it may therefore be concluded that he wrote early or late in the twelfth century. From his phraseology and his method of interpretation, which is simply Midrashic, paying no attention to grammar, we should be inclined to take him to be a rabbi of Southern Italy a fact which would explain the verbal agreement of many passages of our commentary with that of Isaiah of Trani on the same books, which passages are given by Mr. Mathews at the end of his learned preface.

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Summer Stories for Boys and Girls.
Molesworth. (Macmillan & Co.)
Michaelmas Daisy: a Young Girl's Story.
Sarah Doudney. (Griffith & Farran.)
Christopher. By Helen Shipton. (Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge.)
My Boy and I; or, On the Road to Slumberland.

By Mary D. Brine. (Cambridge, Harlan.) OUIDA is not, perhaps, exactly the writer whom one would select as a teller of stories for

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the young. It is not that her incidents are sometimes hardly suited virginibus puerisque; it is not that she may lead the youthful mind astray by talking about "Barabbi or by disagreeing with the grammarian as to the syntax or accidence of ancient and modern languages, or even, as in the present volume, by leading them to suppose that the silver groschen is, or was, an Austrian coin. But there is in all her writings a sort of pessimistic tone, a tendency to make evil triumphant and good unfortunate, and to insist on the baser and more cruel elements of human nature, which if carried into children's books would soon leave very little heaven to lie about them in their infancy. On the whole, therefore, we were somewhat agreeably surprised by this book. Out of the nine stories which it contains, two (those called 'Moufflou' and The Child of Urbino') are really pretty, though in the case of the former the author has been unable to refrain from ending with one of those anecdotes of cruelty to a dog which seem to possess a morbid fascination for her. Of the remainder, two or three are clumsy imitations of Andersen, and the rest seem intended to show that all grown-up people are stupid or brutal. But even the best have the fault that nearly all stories for children have nowadays: they are not really children's stories, but studies of children, such as their elders may appreciate, but themselves never.

6

Mrs. Molesworth's book is of the simplest kind, and all but the youngest children would certainly resent the method of the introduction as too conscious condescension to the youthful mind. But once launched on her stories, the author does well enough. The longest is about

a

"goose girl," obviously of German origin or suggestion, who turns into a princess. Others are of the swallows' return, a pretty fancy enough; of the toymakers of Bergstein and the privations they undergo occasionally when the trade in dolls is slack and provisions are dear; and of how a little boy, better off than the toymakers, got left behind in a train. We feel sure no harm can be done by Mrs. Molesworth, and possibly there may be some good in this sort of prattle, though Jack and the Beanstalk' would please youthful tastes much more.

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Michaelmas Daisy' is a very harmless book. It is even rather a pretty story, though the moral is time-worn and recalls our old friend Cinderella. The orphan Daisy is despised by her purse-proud cousins. She meekly bears

their affronts, and is rewarded in due time. The inevitable uncle from abroad comes home, pining for some one on whom to bestow his wealth, and Daisy becomes an heiress. The humours of the two girl-friends, Maud and Gertrude, are amusing. The tragic end of Gertrude is in keeping with the strictly moral, not to say goody-goody, tendency of the book. Michaelmas Daisy' is one of the series entitled "The Girls' Own Favourite Library.' If it is an average specimen, some readers may doubt how far the series deserves the title. The girls whose favourite library consists of mild stories filled with moralities of the most commonplace type are not likely to have much time to spare for more robust literature.

Christopher is a modern giant, and, like his prototype, becomes a saint by means of childish influence. Miss Shipton seems to us to have worked out with a good deal of suggestiveness the allegory which we remember to have seen pictorially represented on the walls of an ancient country church. From an artistic point of view the medieval St. Christopher was not a success, and the modern one is strangely depicted in one of the illustrations in this book, where the hero seems bent, judging from his action on the rein, on bringing a horse and hansom cab down upon himself and his friend. Of course his effort is, according to the story, successful in the opposite direction. Indeed he is throughout what children call a "good" giant, though like other Anakim he is somewhat slow-witted, and when Galatea rejects him as ungovernable as Polyphemus of old. On the whole it is a blameless story, not without its apt morality.

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To pretty designs executed by Dora Wheeler, in the manner of "E. V. B.," Mrs. Brine has Some of the little poems supplied pretty verses. 'Mother's Song,' to wit-are a lullaby and a so extremely simple and pathetic that they must have been inspired by nature and a happy mind. Mrs. Brine's ear is good, and she writes easily Of the illustrations some and yet carefully. are commonplace, others are excellent; the best is the frontispiece to "The Waning Day,' an afternoon song. perversely bound, or rather its leaves have been tied together between flexible leather sides in the manner of a Persian manuscript— a peculiarly troublesome arrangement, intended probably to be in keeping with the baby inspiration of the author and artist. publication line is a puzzle.

This book has been

The very

HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN PUBLICATIONS.

the great barrier of imperial Rome between the Danube and the Rhine. As he carefully points out, the idea was not quite new. In the year 1822 the Rev. Hugh Salvin had published in the Archeologia Eliana a translation of a now forgotten German tract relating to this vast work. Mr. Hodgkin is, however, we believe, the first Englishman who has ever given the subject serious study. The title of his paper is An Essay towards a Description of the Barrier of the Roman Empire between the Danube and the Rhine.' In these days of boastful tour-writing we are impressed with the modesty which refrains from telling in the heading that the greater part of this work has been described from personal inspection, and that the writer has mastered the copious German literature which has gathered round the subject. This vast rampart is six times as long as the Northumbrian wall. It is a bank of earth, or of stones used as earth, running in a waving line from a point near Coblenz until it touches the Danube a little above Ratisbon. Its Roman origin is certain, but its exact date has not been fixed in a manner that can be held to be satisfactory. It is, indeed, highly improbable that it had any clearly defined date. The probable opinion seems to be that which maintains that it grew up bit by bit as the exigencies of the case called for it. A road, Roman or other, is of little service until complete, that is, until the most distant cities to which it reaches are connected; but a rampart such as the Limes Imperii might be of constant service in a disturbed district, when it was only called for on rare occasions in quieter regions. Our Roman wall was built of stone, and has in consequence suffered more devastation than its German equivalent; we gather, however, from Mr. Hodgkin's pages that, though much shorter, it must have been by far the nobler structure. The inscriptions found in the neighbourhood of our wall are more numerous than those of its German sister. We must not fail to remark that this valuable paper is well illustrated by maps and sketches. It would make no unsuitable companion for any English tourist who had conceived the idea that the remote history of foreign states might, by some strange chance, be not utterly without instruction for him. Mr. Hodgkin has certainly grasped this truth and much more. He says: 66 We see with ever-increasing clearness that wheresoever Roman civilization has once been established, the new Teutonic social system was, to use a geological phrase, always more or less of a 'conformable deposit on the top of it. The fact that the larger part of German Austria, half of Bavaria, nearly the whole of Würtemberg and Baden, and all the Rhine lands were Romanized must have powerfully influenced character, manners, and forms of government in those countries through the Middle Ages down to the present day.' The paper by Mr. John V. Gregory, on 'Place-Names of the County of Northumberland with reference to the Ancestry of the People,' is too short for the great subject of which it treats. The evidence he has produced makes it highly probable that sensational writers have represented the admixture of Scandinavian blood to have been much greater in Northumberland than it really was. The most permanent settlements were made in Southern Northumbria, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire, and it is in those districts that we find the greatest number of placenames which point to a Norse rather than to a Low German paternity. The table of names which Mr. Gregory gives will be found useful by many persons who live far away from Tees and Tyne. It would be easy to cavil at some of his derivations, but as a whole they are sound and mark a direct advance in this obscure department of philological knowledge.

THE twenty-fifth part of the new series of the Archæologia Eliana; or, Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity published by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Newcastleupon-Tyne, Reid), is on our table. The Newcastle Society of Antiquaries is one of the oldest of our provincial learned societies; few bodies of the like nature at home or on the Continent have done more thorough and conscientious work. The north of England has long had and has still a band of students who need not fear comparison with the scholars of the capital. The elder Raine, Surtees, and Hodgson have passed away, but their places are worthily filled, and the Archæologia Eliana, in which much of their best work has appeared, continues to have a high repute wherever history is seriously studied. The present part contains several articles, and very noticeably the first, which are not up to the nsual level; but it also possesses one, filling half the number, which for grasp of the subject and earnestness in mastering details leaves nothing to be desired. The Roman Wall is an object of unfailing interest to a Northumbrian. minent features have been mapped and its details studied in a manner beyond all praise. It has occurred to Mr. Thomas Hodgkin that it was not enough to study this great fortification on the spot, but that it should be compared with

Its pro

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IT is seldom that so small a book contains so many new and important facts as Mr. Macray's Notes from the Muniments of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford (Parker & Co.). It is not easy to describe its contents. In the fourth and eighth

Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS. a useful account is given of the precious. muniments of this college. Mr. Macray has, however, catalogued the whole collection. Every one of its nearly fourteen thousand documents has been studied by him, and the little book before us is but a series of notes made while engaged in the far more important work of the catalogue. It gives us in a handy form much information which we should conjecture the catalogue itself would not furnish. To any future editor of the Monasticon '-and such a man will assuredly appear some day-this little book will be most useful. The editors of the last edition could only recover the names of two of the priors of Sele in Sussex. Mr. Macray has identified eighteen of them as well as several of the seals of this monastery. It is not the 'Monasticon' alone that can be improved by consulting Mr. Macray's pages; the student of social progress will find a useful table of prices. ranging from 1260 to 1520, which he would da well to compare with the far larger and more elaborate ones given by Mr. Rogers in his 'History of Agriculture.' Bondmen come in for their share of attention. In 1220 one was sold to Brackley Hospital for eighteen shillings, and in 1313 another was pledged as security for a loan. The last time they are met with is in 1562, when the college granted a manumission to one on condition of the yearly payment of sixpence. A few of the more interesting autographs that occur among the archives are reproduced. That of Lady Maud Willoughby, 1472, gives one the impression that she was not accustomed to use a pen for any other purposes than writing her name. Cecily, Duchess of York, the mother of Edward IV., on the other hand, writes as one accustomed to the practice of the art, but who had learnt it in a foreign school. There seems to be an almost complete catalogue of the seals belonging to the college. The collection must be one of the largest and most important in England. We should like to know more than Mr. Macray tells us of one of them of fourteenth century date which bears an Arabic inscription.

It is unhappily broken, but surely the fragment is worth engraving. A table of measures of land and one of strange Christian and family names of men and women are given. We have also a list of remarkable quitrents. One tenant had to render for his holding a white rose on St. John Baptist's Day; a tenant at Westcote held by the service of paying one apple, and another by the payment of a root of ginger.

MR. E. PEACOCK has sent us the Injunctions of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, to certain Monasteries in his Diocese (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries'). Mr. Peacock has unluckily done little more than print the transcript of this very interesting document made by the Rev. A. R. Maddison, F.S.A., and this is the more to be regretted as probably no one is more capable of annotating it than he is. Issued in 1531, these injunctions were part of the vehement efforts of an energetic and able man to prop up a falling edifice and to shame his subordinates out of the courses which served too well as an excuse for their ruin. There is no smoke without fire, and it may fairly be assured that the things the abbots and abbesses were so strongly urged not to do were the things they had been doing. They comprise a long catalogue of personal misconduct, lightness of behaviour, and so on, but none of the graver sins popularly attributed to the ecclesiastics of the period. Had any such sins existed in this diocese there is little doubt that so vigorous and plainspoken a prelate would have denounced them; but though he is careful to refer to things likely to cause scandal, he has no occasion to go further. At Ulnestowe neither the abbess nor her successors are to be led by the arm in processions. Dame Katherine Wingate is to get up earlier in the morning and be at matins, and is not to sup or breakfast in the buttery with

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the steward or any other secular person. Nun Cottam there is to be no lord of misrule in future. Chaplains are to have no keys of the church or cloister doors, and half-a-dozen priests who are mentioned by name are specially forbidden the place. There is to be no more wandering abroad of sisters under pretence of pilgrimages or visiting their friends, both of which practices have occasioned scandal. At Messenden the abbot is to provide "oon sobre sadde man to be porter of the great gates, who is to be as careful to let no women in as the abbess of Nun Cottam is to keep them in. The bishop did not think it beneath him to refer frequently and at length to dress. At Ulnestowe the nuns are not to wear their head gear with "cornered crests or show their foreheads like lay people, but are to wear their veils down to their eyelids. Nor are they to wear voided shoes, but are to close up their gowns and kirtles before, and not let them be so "deep voided" (low cut?) at the breast; and especially there are to be no more red stomachers. At Studley, too, the nuns are to wear their veils down to their "yye liddes. The monks also come in for censure, especially at Messenden, where they are told not to wear any "garded or welted hose or stuffed codpese or jerkyn, or any other shorte or courteley fashioned garment. There are not many complaints of gluttony, but the abbot of Messenden is told to spare some dish from his board till he has repaired his buildings; and in nearly every case the bad repair of the houses is commented on. Against nepotism most is said. The abbess of Nun Cottam is plainly told not to burden or charge her house with such a number of her kinsfolk as she had done in times past, and later on the bishop, returning to the charge, tells her sarcastically not to give so liberally" the goods of her monastery to her brother and his children. The abbot of Messenden, too, is told not to suffer his kinsfolk to hang upon the monastery's charge. Unprofitable servants are strongly denounced. At Studley, Martin Whighull is specially mentioned as 66 not profitable," and the abbess is to avoid him out of her service. The abbess of Nun Cottam is roundly told that the excessive number of her servants is one of the great causes of her "miserable poverty," while at Messenden, John Compton, who is said to rule the abbot, is no more to meddle with the affairs of the abbey, and John Slithurse, one of the priests, is to be kept in prison. These injunctions must have been bitter reading for those to whom they were addressed, and to make them worse, in several cases it is distinctly ordered that they should be re-read aloud every month. They are models of plain speaking, but occasionally degenerate into incivility, as when the abbot of Messenden is told that the injunctions are sent to him in the vulgar English tongue because he is ignorant and has small understanding of Latin.

A Manual of Historical Literature. By Charles Kendall Adams. (Sampson Low & Co.)--This book, by an American professor, is a praiseworthy attempt to give a general account of historical literature, together with sketches of a course of historical reading for each country and period. The object is so meritorious and the difficulties in the way of accomplishing it are so many that it would be ungracious not to make great allowances. Yet, after making all the allowances we can, we are reluctantly forced to the conclusion that Prof. Adams's book is not likely to be of great service to any particular class, because it aims at supplying the needs of too many different kinds of readers. Prof. Adams has kept in view the student, the teacher, the schoolboy, and the general reader all at once, and consequently has failed to satisfy the needs of any one of them. In his method and in his criticisms he has paid undue attention to the general reader, and has mentioned a number of works which no one seriously searching for knowledge would ever dream of using. Thus, in Roman history, Beesly's 'Gracchi,

Beesly's Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius,' and Curteis's 'Roman Empire' are mentioned, while Champagny's 'Les Césars,' De Broglie's 'L'Église et l'Empire Romaine,' and Friedländer's 'Sittengeschichte' are omitted. We do not object to the insertion of the first-mentioned books; but it is difficult to conceive any conception of the study of Roman history which omits the last three. Similar lacunae occur in the case of every country and period. Valuable works are not mentioned; modern compilations receive full recognition. We should not gather from the criticisms much idea of the relative proportions of the works discussed. Some of the omissions are curious. There is no mention of Bohemian history. The great work of Palacky is entirely ignored, and we do not notice any mention of the Hussite wars. Again, while several of Ranke's books are mentioned, one of the most remarkable, 'Fürsten und Völker der Süd-Europa,' is passed by. Generally also there is a remarkable omission of books which are most valuable to students-books dealing with authorities. It is true that Potthast's 'Wegweiser' is briefly stated to be "of no interest to the general reader, but of great value to the special student of the Middle Ages in general"; but we do not find Wattenbach's or Lorenz's Deutschland's Geschichtsquellen,' or any of the 'Regesten,' which are the only guides of any real service to the complicated history of Germany. So far does Prof. Adams seem to carry his objection to authorities that he does not mention Gardiner and Mullinger's 'Introduction to the Study of English History,' nor either of the volumes of the valuable series of "Early Chroniclers of Europe "that have been published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In fact Prof. Adams seems rather puzzled by a book which deals with authorities when he comes across it. He remarks naïvely enough of Gieseler's 'Kirchengeschichte,' that "the text is admirable for the ability and judicious fairness with which it is written, but it is perhaps in the notes that the extraordinary merits of the work are most conspicuous. No one would guess that he was describing a work which consists of references to, and extracts from, original authorities, arranged under headings and strung together by a brief summary at the head of each page. All this points to the main defect of Prof. Adams's book. Its compiler seems to have no clear view of the functions of history. He does not suppose that an historical reader is looking for anything in particular. His accounts of books do not tell us what they are about with any precision. His remarks are vague, bald, and approximate. We should not gather from him what books we wanted to read. His opinions represent the impression left on a puzzled mind after reading a few reviews of a book and combining their information. Prof. Adams has not sufficiently limited the scope of his book, nor has he sufficiently subdivided it. We doubt if it will be found useful by many readers.

The Regulations of the old Hospital of the Knights of St. John at Valetta. By the Rev. W. K. R. Bedford. (Blackwood & Sons.)-This is a republication of the rules of the Infirmary at Malta, from a Roman edition of 1725, accompanied by a translation into English. The sole motive for such a book is the existence in England of an "Order of St. John of Jerusalem," which gratifies an antiquarian spirit by carrying out the objects of modern philanthropy under an ancient name. Mr. Bedford, as chaplain to the order, has edited this book; but he has not done so in such a way as to make a contribution to any branch of human knowledge. His preface gives a very scanty account of the Order of St. John and of its hospital at Valetta. He adds a few notes to his translation, but they are not of a kind to throw much light on the medical and sanitary knowledge of former times. If he had given his readers some information on this subject they would have been thankful; as it is, subject they would have been thankful; as it is,

he leaves them in the dark whether the hospital at Valetta was better managed than contemporary institutions or not. Its arrangements seem fairly good; but there is often a great differencebetween regulations on paper and their actual application. Nor is the translation always happy. Sometimes we find frù rendered by "frère"; and in the list of food provided for the sick galline is rendered " gallinas,” while many Italian words are dropped about the English as though the translator were too lazy to be at the trouble of always rendering them. Mr. Bedford does not seem to have bestowed much pains upon his work, either as editor or translator.

M. HENRI WELSCHINGER publishes, through the house of Charavay of Paris, La Censure sous le Premier Empire, a volume containing documents of some little interest extracted from the Archives on the Censorship between 1800 and 1815, and a somewhat confused historical narrative founded upon

them.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

WHEN the first edition of The Book Hunter came out in 1862 there was some amused wonder among Dr. Hill Burton's friends that he should have written what was called "an elegant book." There was an undeniable charm about it, and a second edition was soon called for. The second edition was an improvement on the first, for Dr. Burton, with an amount of good sense which is not universal, had "taken advantage of some suggestions kindly contributed by the critics who reviewed the previous edition," had corrected some inaccuracies, and omitted, as we remember, some pages of well-known extracts from Sir Thomas Browne. But both editions have long been out of print, and a copy always fetched a fancy price, so that we are glad to welcome 'The Book Hunter' in another form, as sent to us by Messrs. Blackwood. This new edition of 'The Book Hunter' is a singularly handsome quarto volume, with several illustrations, and a short life of Dr. Burton. It is essentially an édition de luxe, and is meant mainly for the library shelf. Dr. Burton, we believe, proposed to introduce a number of fac-similes and ornamental initials, tail-pieces, &c.; but this intention he did not live to carry into effect. The memoir of the author, however, is the new feature in this edition which entitles it to a notice. Mrs. Hill Burton has shown a very wise discretion in not publishing a regular biography, and in condensing what she had to say into a hundred pages. It is only to be regretted that the wives of far less eminent writers have not shown equal judgment, and the contrast between this memoir and that (for instance) of Mr. Fields, the Boston publisher, is certainly remarkable. In another respect, too, has Mrs. Hill Burton shown herself a worthy, because an honest, biographer. She has given us a very fair photograph of the man as he really was, and not as she might have wished us to imagine him. She admits that he "can never have been handsome, and he so determinately neglected his person as to increase its natural defects. His greatest mental defect was an almost entire want of imagination. From this cause the characters of those nearest and dearest to him remained to his life's end a sealed book." But he was a kind-hearted and a charitable man, and a most laborious and painstaking student. We have no doubt that Mrs. Hill Burton has made the best use of her materials, but Dr. Burton's life seems to have been singularly uneventful, and there is really hardly anything to tell. He was born in 1809, and his early life was hard; but "constitutionally irritable, energetic, and utterly persistent," he worked steadily on. In 1854 he was appointed Secretary to the Prison Board, and for many years he divided his time between the duties this appointment involved and his literary tasks. He was a voluminous author, and his studies in Scotch history were properly rewarded

by his being made Historiographer-Royal. He was twice married, his second wife being a daughter of Cosmo Innes, the accomplished Scotch antiquary. There is a pretty description of Craighouse, where he lived for many years, “a venerable, half-castellated, ivy-grown manor-house, among avenues of ancient trees where the light had first to struggle through the foliage before it fell on the narrow windows, in walls that were many feet in thickness"; and here were stowed away his books in "a labyrinth of passages, to which you mounted or descended by a step or two; of odd nooks and sombre little corridors, and tiny apartments squeezed aside into corners, and lighted either from the corridor or by a lancet-window or a loophole." Craighouse was, however, bought for an asylum, and the family removed to Morton House. Age was now beginning to creep on, and Dr. Burton was becoming more and more retiring; he hardly saw any company, and dreaded the sight of a new face. He died on the 10th of August of last year, and was buried in the little churchyard of Dalmeny. Mrs. Burton says of her husband that he was 66 no great letterwriter," and we are bound to say that most of the letters here given are quite uninteresting and need never have been printed. Were there not letters of literary and historical interest which could have been selected? and might not more reminiscences of Dr. Burton's friends, in the form of letters to him, have found a place? However this may be, Mrs. Hill Burton's memoir is so modest in its dimensions, and so straightforward in its tone, that the reader will be disposed to find in it as few shortcomings as possible.

GENERAL SCHOMBERG has concluded his praiseworthy task of translating the Odyssey. It is rather more than three years since we noticed the first volume, and the remarks we then made will apply to the second. It is, perhaps, a little difficult to see where the book is to find its public. Scholars and those who wish merely to read the story will prefer a good prose translation, such as that of Messrs. Butcher and Lang, while other people have Chapman and Pope. As we hoped before we will hope now-that General Schomberg's version will be popular among military men. It is good, straightforward blank verse, not very inspiriting, but pretty correct. The following is a fair specimen of it (Odyssey, T. 106): —

Wary Ulysses answered in reply:
"O lady, it is hard to recollect

A thing so long ago; 'tis twenty years

Since thence he sailed, and left my native shore:
But as my memory sweeps o'er the past,

I tell thee how it brings him to my mind.

A purple mantle made of wool he wore,

Of double folds; the brooch which fastened it
Was worked in gold, fitted with double hasps;
In front the brooch was wrought with rare device;
With his fore-paws and fangs, a dog held fast
A dappled, panting fawn: 'twas strange to see
How truthfully the beasts were wrought in gold,—
How the dog gazed, throttling the tender hart,
Which struggled with his feet to free himself."

forgotten. Thus while Hermathena and the Philological Journal only represent the critical side, the Journal before us has its chief value in the predominance of archæology and the study of ancient art. The recent excavations of Dr. Schliemann at Orchomenos and the travels of Mr. Ramsay in Asia Minor are the principal contributions of new and original research, and both these have appeared first and in their freshest form in the transactions of the English Hellenic Society. The admirable plates and fac-similes given in the atlas make these records all the more valuable. Then there are the careful studies of delicate questions in Greek art, especially those of Dr. Chas. Waldstein, which open a field quite new to English students, and which will teach a fresh appreciation of the splendid remains of art which have hitherto been but vaguely wondered at in our museums. Many of the articles on this side are short and special, but all tend to this one large result. On inscriptions we have scholars like Mr. Newton and Mr. Hicks giving either new material or new renderings of known inscriptions. The variety of these contributions renders any survey of them in a short notice impossible. On the historical and literary side the work is not so various or interesting. The boldest and most distinct paper is Mr. Mahaffy's attack upon the Olympian register, at a time when any day a recovered inscription from Olympia may prove that he is wrong, while, on the other hand, a theory laid down in the face of this possible evidence will gain greater credit and importance if it turn out correct. Mr. Jebb's paper on Pindar, though learned and full of detail, does not leave any definite impression on the reader's mind. sides, too much space is occupied with the controversy as to whether the Greeks did or did not believe Ilium to be the descendant of the heroic Troy. We regret to see that the society which produces this fine Journal, and which desires to give grants for research and for the production of monumental works, is only supported by 450 names. Surely the classical public in England is larger than this, and how is it that the best and readiest source of new information on Greek matters excites so little interest? The French

Be

are commonly reputed to be behind us in the study of Greek, and yet, in addition to their famous archæological school at Athens, how many excellent journals have they in which the progress of Greek studies can be pursued! We trust that in another year's time the English Hellenic Society may number not 450 but 1,000 members. Meanwhile it may be suggested that

a short bulletin of the new discoveries, excavations, &c., should be appended to each number of the Journal.

MESSRS. KEGAN PAUL & Co. have sent us the second volume of the very pretty edition of Shakspere's Works which forms part of the "Parchment Library."

The Argus incident is not badly translated; but in the meeting of Ulysses and Laertes, General Schomberg has missed a point. The lines, Αμφὶ δὲ παιδὶ φίλῳ βάλε πήχεε τὸν δὲ ποτὲ οἱ Εἷλεν ἀποψύχοντα πολύτλας διος Οδυσσεύς, form such a climax that one commentator considered them to be the true end of the poem. In the version before us they are actually rendered by two lines and a half, and ended with a semicolon. This shows some want of apprecia-upon-Tyne, Carr), The Eddystone Lighthouses, tion. The publisher is Mr. Murray.

The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Vol. II. and Vol. III. Part I. (Macmillan & Co.)-All classical scholars and all educated people with classical interests will hail with satisfaction the progress of this journal, which removes a grave reproach long urged against English Hellenism. We were so taken up with writing Latin and Greek verses, and trying to suggest new emendations, and of late even with translating Greek authors into elegant English, that the historical and archæological side of Greek life was almost

Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XVI. Part I. (Trübner),-Report of the Metropolitan Board of Works, 1881 (M.B. W.),-Bristol Review, No. 1 (Bristol, Fawn),-New Views of Matter, Life, Motion, and Resistance, by J. Hands (E. W. Allen),-Beauty, and the Laws governing its Development, by J. Hands (E. W. Allen), -The Books of Chilan Balam, by D. G. Brinton (Philadelphia, Stern),-Indian Languages of the Pacific States and Territories, by A. S. Gatschet (New York, Barnes), --The Queen and the Royal Family, by F. A. (Hogg),-Political Epigrams, 1874-81 (King), and Essays of Oliver Goldsmith, M.D., by C. D. Yonge (Macmillan).

LIST OF NEW BOOKS. ENGLISH. Theology.

Hallam's (R. A.) Moses, a Course of Lectures, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Student's (The) Concordance to the Revised Version, 1881, of the New Testament, sm. 4to. 7/6 cl.

Fine Art and Archeology.

Chevreul's (M. E.) Laws of Contrast of Colour, translated from the French by J. Spanton, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Cooke's (W. H.) Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, Vol. 3, 4to. 52/6 cl. Great Artists: Overbeck, by J. B. Atkinson, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Munro's (R.) Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings, 8vo. 21/ cl. Poetry and the Drama. Lytton's (Lord) Dramatic Works, Vol. 2, Knebworth edition, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl. Shakespeare's Plays: Part 1, Julius Cæsar (Dumaresq edition), by Capt. F. 8. D. de C. Bisson and R. Mongan, cr. 8vo. 2/ Songs of Many Days, by K. C., 12mo. 5/ cl. History and Biography.

Pitt (W.), by L. Sergeant, cr. 8vo. 2/6 cl. (English Political Leaders.)

Geography and Travel. Bourne's (C. E.) Heroes of African Discovery and Adventure, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.

Godwin's (Rev. G. N.) The Green Lanes of Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex, 8vo. 6/ cl.

Philips' Elementary Atlas and Geography, edited by J. F.
Williams, 4to. 3/6 cl.

Randall's (J.) The Severn Valley, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl.
Smyth's (C. P.) Madeira Meteorologic, 4to. 6/ cl.
Philology.

Lysia Orationes XVI., with Analysis, Notes, &c., by E. S.
Shuckburgh, 12mo. 6/ cl.

Science.
Fayrer (Sir J.) On the Climate and Fevers of India, 8vo. 12/
Galloway's (R. L.) A History of Coal Mining, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl.
General Literature.

Blair Athol, by Blinkhoolie, 12mo. 2/ bds. (Railway Library.)
Clarke's (Mrs. 8.) From the Deck of a Yacht, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Dudley's (R.) Monthly Maxims, 4to. 25/ cl.
Gibbon's (C.) A Heart's Problem, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Harte's (B.) Flip and other Stories, 12mo. 2/ bds.
Heatley's (G. S.) Horse Owners' Safeguard, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl.
Humphreys's Student's Guide to Systematic Coat Cutting,
4to. 4/ swd.

Jenkins's (E.) Jobson's Enemies, 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31/6 cl.
Kompert's (L.) Scenes from the Ghetto, Studies of Jewish
Life, cr. 8vo. 7/6 cl.

Lane's (L. M.) My Sister's Keeper, cr. 8vo. 3/6 cl.
Mallock's (W. H.) Social Equality, a Short Study in a Missing
Science, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl.

Pirkis's (C. L.) Saint and Sibyl, a Story of Old Kew, 3 vols. cr. 8vo. 31/6 cl.

Reminiscences of an Old Bohemian, 2 vols. 8vo. 21/ cl.
Wee Babies, printed in Colours from Original Designs by
Ida Waugh, Poetry by A. E. Blanchard, 4to. 5/ cl.
FOREIGN.
Theology.

Guttmann (J.): Die Religionsphilosophie d. Saadia, 6m.
Psalmen (Die), übersetzt v. S. R. Hirsch, Part 2, 4m. 50.
Fine Art and Archæology.

Drama.

Delius (T.): Marlowe's Faustus u. seine Quelle, 0m. 80.
History and Biography.
Correspondenz (Politische) Friedrich's d. Grossen, Vol. 8, 14m.
Forst (H.): Buchanans Darstellung der Geschichte Maria
Stuarts, Im. 50.
Neumann (C.): Bernhard v. Clairvaux und der 2 Kreuzzug,
1m. 20.

Tadra (F.): Summa Gerhardi, 4m. 40.

Philology.

Pauli (C.): Die Etruskischen Zahlwörter, 7m.
Woeste (Fr.): Wörterbuch der Westfälischen Mundart, 8m.

We have on our table The Belgium of the East, edited by B. Jerrold (Allen & Co.), Winters Georgel (J. A.): Armorial des Familles de Lorraine, 60fr. Abroad, by R. H. Otter (Murray), — John Howard's Winter's Journey, by W. A. Guy (De La Rue), Outlines of Ancient and Medicval History, by E. Power (Hamilton),-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Memory, by Rev. P. Murphy (Routledge),-Garfield's Place in History, by H. C. Pedder (New York, Putnam),—William Hedley, the Inventor of Railway Locomotion on the Present Principle, by M. Archer (NewcastleNew and Old, by E. P. Edwards (Simpkin),Traces in Scotland of Ancient Water-Lines, by D. M. Home (Edinburgh, Douglas),-Land Nationalisation, its Necessity and its Aims, by A. R. Wallace (Trübner), -The Commercial Restraints of Ireland, by J. H. Hutchinson (Dublin, Gill & Son),-Metropolitan Police-Court Jottings, by a Magistrate (Cox),-Queenwood College Mutual Improvement Society, Miscellaneous Papers (The College),-Report of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations (Clowes),-Journal of the North-China

General Literature.

Delcourt (P.): Le Secret du Juge d'Instruction, 3fr. 50. Glouvet (J. de): Histoires du Vieux Temps, 3fr. 50.

THE HALL OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

1, Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, Aug. 9, 1882. THE statement of Mr. Waterhouse in the Athenæum for last week that the hall which was destroyed under his directions " was neither in its floor, ceiling, windows, doors, fireplace, nor panelling, the hall of Gray," moves me to relate, as briefly as I can, the history of the

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