separate form by Messrs. Black, the publishers of the Encyclopædia.'

be

THE appearance of Major Fraser's Manuscript,' of which Col. Fergusson is editor, has, we hear, been somewhat delayed by the late receipt of interesting material from the North. It will probably issued towards the end of this month in two small volumes, embellished with etchings adapted from the scarce portrait of Simon, Lord Lovat, by Le Clare, and from an original portrait of President Forbes of Culloden; there is also given a reproduction of the portrait of the author, Major Fraser of Castle Leathers, from the drawing in outline by John Sobieski Stuart. MR. LEOPOLD CHARLES MARTIN, second son of John Martin, the painter, died last week in London. He was the godson of Leopold I., first king of the Belgians, and for many years held an appointment under the Crown, the gift of Lord Melbourne when Premier. Mr. Martin married the sister of Mr. John Tenniel, of Punch. He was the author of various works on costume, coins, topography, &c.; and his "Reminiscences" of his father are now in course of publication in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle.

MESSRS. BENTLEY & SON have in the press a novel entitled 'Masters of the World,' by Mrs. Marks (Miss Hoppus). The period is the time of Domitian, rather an ambitious topic for a lady to choose. The same firm have in the press a new story by Miss Marie Corelli, author of A Romance of Two Worlds.'

Ar Llandudno the adoption of the Free Libraries Act has been declined by a majority of 145 votes, whilst at Camberwell it has been decided to adopt the Act by a majority of upwards of 4,000 votes.

MR. ROBERT HARRISON having resigned the office of honorary treasurer of the Library Association, which he has ably filled since the foundation of the society in 1877, Mr. H. R. Tedder, librarian of the Athenæum Club, has been appointed his suc

cessor.

THE REV. R. Belaney has in the press a little treatise on 'The Bible and the Papacy,' which immediately after its appearance in English will be republished in an Italian translation at Rome.

MR. W. E. HENLEY, whose connexion with the Art Journal terminated with the

close of 1888, has become the editor of the Scots Observer, an able weekly sixpenny journal which was started in Edinburgh the other day, dealing with politics, art, and literature. Mr. Henley is a brilliant and experienced journalist, and is also favourably known as a poet. His volume of realistic verse entitled A Book of Verses' was reviewed in the Athenæum last August.

THE College for Ladies established at Kensington by the authorities of King's College is prospering, the chief drawback being the debt on the building. A subscription has been started to diminish that, but it hardly meets with the general support it should. Meanwhile, we may mention that special courses have lately been introduced. Mrs. Fawcett is going to lecture this term on political economy, Mr. Phené Spiers on architecture, and Dr. Buchheim on Goethe's 'Faust.'

MR. HENRY GRAY, the well-known topographical bookseller, promises the first volume of the "Tombstone Library," a collection of monumental inscriptions, epitaphs, &c., derived from various parts of the kingdom.

MR. WILLIAM M. HENNESSY, known as an expert in the Gaelic language, died at Dublin on the 13th of the present month. His principal works were Chronicum Scotorum,' published in 1866, and Annals of Loch Ce,' issued in 1871. In his early days Mr. Hennessy was a bookseller in Dublin, but for some years past he had occupied a position in a Government office in that city. Ir is stated that a copy of Thackeray's little pamphlet, The Second Funeral of Napoleon,' has lately changed hands at the following prices: 18., 8., 221., and 307.; finally finding its resting-place in the library of an enthusiastic collector!

THE February number of the English Il. lustrated Magazine will contain an article by Mr. W. W. Fenn on ' Moated Houses,' with illustrations by Mr. G. L. Seymour; an article on Dort, both written and illustrated by Mr. Reginald Blomfield; and illustrations to the Countryman's Song in Walton's Angler' by Mr. Hugh Thomson.

6

THE February number of the Library will contain an article on Henry Bradshaw by Mr. Verrall. Mr. A. H. Bullen contributes a second article on the Appledore Press.

THE autobiography of "The Nun of Kenmare," who so distinguished herself in the Irish famine of 1879, will be published in a few days by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton. WE ought to have noticed last week the death of Prof. J. F. Davies. Mr. Davies was for many years a schoolmaster at Kingstown, if we mistake not, and made his reputation by his edition of the 'Oresteia of Eschylus, in which he showed that, if audacious in emendation, he was a more than usually brilliant scholar. Every one, therefore, interested in the prosperity of classic scholarship in Ireland was glad when he was appointed to the Professorship of Latin at Galway. At the time of his decease Mr. Davies was revising the late Dr. Henry's commentaries on the Æneid with a view to a new edition.

DR. REINHOLD RÖHRICHT, who has just published an epitome of the book 'On German Pilgrimages to the Holy Land,' edited by him and Dr. H. Meissner in 1880, has in the press a complete bibliography of "Palæstiniensia" up to 1888.

THE Abbé P. Batiffol is preparing a collection of Patristica, of which the first fasciculus, which will appear next month, will contain The Book of Prayer of Aseneth' in Greek, with a Latin translation according to the Syriac text.

A VOLUME Commemorative of the King of Sweden's completion of his sixtieth year is to appear at Stockholm next week. It is edited by Reinhold Hörnell, and contains contributions by leading Swedish authors and artists. One item is announced which is rarely met with in royal memorials of this kind: facsimiles of three of the best known of Oscar II.'s poems are to be given from the original manuscripts. It is, perhaps, not universally known here that if the king were the most humbly born of

his own subjects he would be distinguished as a lyrical poet of considerable merit.

Ar the last Congress of Orientalists, which was held at Vienna in 1886, it was resolved that the next Congress in 1889 should meet in Scandinavia. In recognition of the political equality of Sweden and Norway there will be sessions both at Stockholm and Christiania. The Congress will also last for a longer time than the earlier congresses, from September 2nd to 13th. Amongst the Swedish members of the committee are Dr. Esaias Tegner, Professor of the Semitic Languages at the University of Lund, and Dr. Almkvist, Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Upsala ; amongst the Norwegian members-Dr. E. Blix, formerly Minister of Education, and the following professors at the University of Christiania: J. Lieblein (Egyptology), S. Bugge (Indo-European Philology), A. Seippel (Semitic Languages), and C. P. meet first at Stockholm, in the Radirhuset Caspari (Theology). The Congress will Palace, on September 2nd, when an address will be given by King Oscar.

THE following is an extract from an American letter:

"We are all engaged in searching out every new scrap concerning George Washington, the centenary of whose inauguration as first President of the United States will occur April 30th. I have several articles and an oration to prepare. The whole thing is a notable illustration of the process of evolving a god. You have only to ascribe to your selected individual all the prosperities and glories of a hundred years, to lay every unpleasantness in his career on a subordinate officer or minister, to paint with stars and auroral stripes every good act or word (however common among good men), and suppress every record of misbehaviour, and ecce! I have before me a passionate love-letter written

by Washington to a married lady just after his own engagement to the widow Custis. But Siegfried is apt to have a vulnerable spot.”

lying dangerously ill at Mayence. OverWE are sorry to hear that Prof. Noiré is work has produced nervous prostration, and the doctors have enjoined complete rest. His work on Esthetics,' with which he has been occupied for many years, and which was drawing to its conclusion, will not appear for the present.

UNDER the quaint title of Gott will es, which was the war cry of the Crusaders, a new journal has been established in Germany as the special organ of the Roman Catholic portion of the crusade against African slavery.

SENATOR STANFORD, a Californian millionaire, has allocated 2,000,000l. for the institution of a university which is to bear his name, and which is to provide education from the kindergarten stage up to the highest point to which it can be carried. Seven thousand acres in the valley of San José are now being laid out with the view of forming a forest and a garden around the university buildings. The plans for the whole structure, which have been drawn up, comprise, first, the means of research and instruction of large numbers of students in the central buildings; second, arrangement for out-of-doors instruction and recreation; and third, the formation, in association with the university, " of a community instructively representative of attractive and wholesome conditions of social and domestic

ings of the Royal Geographical Society must contain some serious errors.

of

Prof. Günther, in the Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, deals with "rhythmical oscillations of the level of land-locked seas," with especial reference to the "sea-bears" of the Baltic, which are sometimes ascribed to earthquakes. Prof. Günther shows that this phenomenon is the same as the "seiches lakes, and is due to descending winds of cyclonic character. The same periodical publishes a paper on the religious notions of the Ilocanos, a tribe of the Philippines, by Don Isabelo de los Reyes y Florentino, a learned Malay; and a further instalment of Dr. Baumann's survey of the Congo river, which takes us from Stanley Pool to the vicinity of the Mobangi.

The Hon. Guy Dawnay, before returning to Europe, proposes to make an excursion into the Masai country. He will, of course, start from Mombasa.

The recent Black Mountain expedition has resulted in a considerable increase of geographical information. Capt. Wahab reports as follows regarding the survey work accomplished by himself and one sub-surveyor while with the Hazara field force: "Up to the end of the Akazai country we have a complete survey, extending a good way west of the Indus, and a certain amount of reconnaissance work in the Chagarzai country up to about Judbai. North-east of the Black Mountain we have surveyed from Nandihar (the limit of the survey in the 1868 expedition) northward to the range beyond Allahi and westward to the hills overlooking the Indus. We have fixed the course of the river up to, say, fifteen miles north of Thakot, and I have sketched on the quarter-inch scale as much as possible of the country between the Indus and Surat valleys, and what I could see from the Chel mountain and the Ghorapher pass. I have made three stations and fixed a number of points in the lower ranges, between the snowy peaks fixed by the Great Trigonometrical Survey and the British frontier. The Allahi valley was nearly all sketched by Imam Sharif." There is a gap in the survey of the Indus valley from the bend west of Thakot down to Judbai, which cannot be plotted without going into the Chagarzai country, but this has been approximately laid down within a close margin of the truth. The total amount of detailed survey, exclusive of reconnaissance sketches, covers an area of 177 square miles.

Col. Mark Siever Bell, V.C., A.D.C., Royal Engineers, has arrived in England from India after a prolonged journey of exploration through Baluchistan and the least-known portions of Persian territory, the results of which it is to be hoped he will be permitted by the military authorities to make known to the public. The following extended reconnaissances have been carried out by Col. Bell since he joined the Intelligence Branch of the Indian QuartermasterGeneral's Department, of which till lately he has been the chief in Northern China from February to July, 1882; in South-Western Persia from February to July, 1884; in Mesopotamia and Armenia from September, 1885, to May, 1886; in Western China and Kashgaria from March to September, 1887; in Baluchistan, Persia, and the Caucasus from July, 1888, to January, 1889. The explorations of Col. Bell have added greatly to geographical science, and the information acquired for the Indian military and political departments during these dangerous and adventurous journeys, which he has undertaken with such skill and tact, is especially valued by the Indian Government, which is now in possession of a mass of his military reports on the above countries, compiled from his careful personal observations, topographical, economical, statistical, and, of course, strategical.

The details of the ascent of Mount Elburz last August by Baron Ungern Sternberg have just been published in the Russian press. According to the measurements taken, the height

of the mountain is only 17,840 feet, and not over 18,000 feet, as has been generally computed. Baron Ungern Sternberg's only predecessors were Kiliar, the guide of the expedition of General Emmanuel in 1829, and Mr. Freshfield in 1868.

SOCIETIES.

ROYAL-Jan. 10.-The President in the chair.

The following paper was read: Appendix to the Bakerian Lecture,' by Prof. J. Norman Lockyer.

ASTRONOMICAL.-Jan. 11.-Mr. W. H. M. Christie, Astronomer Royal, in the chair.-Lord Boulton, Messsrs. E. W. Brown, S. Fellows, J. J. L. Goodridge, J. S. Nimkey, F. W. Nash, and W. Schooling were elected Fellows.-The Rev. S. J. Perry read a paper On the Surface of the Sun during the Year 1888.' On 241 days of the year observations were secured at Stonyhurst Observatory. The sun was found to be entirely free from spots on 102 days. The percentage of spotless days has been greatly on the increase, having been nine in 1886, twenty-nine in 1887, and forty-two in 1888. But the minimum period is probably drawing to a close, for a small group of spots was observed on the last day of the year in the high latitude of 36° south. Such groups are usually the forerunners of a new period of maximum disturbance-Mr. Knobel read a paper by Mr. I. Roberts On Photographs of the Nebula in the Pleiades and in Andromeda.' Some remarkable photographs were exhibited at the last meeting, but greatly surpassed the former. The photograph of the photographs accompanying the present paper the nebula in the Pleiades was an enlargement of four diameters from a negative taken on the 8th of December with an exposure of four hours, and though the photograph does not show the existence of any large new area of nebulosity, the structure within the nebula is more clearly defined. A beautiful photograph of the nebula in Andromeda was also shown to the meeting. It was obtained with an exposure of four hours, and clearly shows that this nebula consists of a bright central mass surrounded by a spiral stream of nebulous matter with some minor branches. The spiral stream lies in a plane which is greatly inclined to the line of sight.-Mr. Ingall suggested that the nebulous appearances photographed might be due to ghosts produced by the reflection of light from stars within the instrument; and Mr. Waters suggested that they might be due to the reflection of the stellar light from the back of the photographic plate.-Mr. Common, Mr. Ranyard, and Mr. Lockyer agreed that such a theory was quite untenable, because the nebulous patches are not symmetrically disposed about the brighter stars, and because the photographs taken by Mr. I. Roberts with a 20-in. reflector agree perfectly with the photographs taken by the brothers Henry with a 13-in. refractor, although the ghost - producing conditions would be entirely different in the two instruments.-Mr. Taylor read a paper entitled Sir H. Thompson's observatory at Hurstside. Mr. 'Note of Observations of Nebular Spectra' made at Taylor has succeeded in observing nine lines in the spectrum of the Orion nebula where only five lines had been previously observed by Dr. Copeland. In the Andromeda nebula he had observed two very faint lines in the green, and measured their position in the spectrum; and he has observed one faint green line in the ring nebula of Lyra.-The following papers were taken as read: Étoiles Filantes de la Période du 7-11 Août, 1886, observées en Italie,' by Padrè F. Denza,-Spectroscopic Results for the Motions of Stars in the Line of Sight obtained in the Year 1888 at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, No. XII., Observations at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, of Occultations of Stars by the Moon, and of Phenomena of Jupiter's Satellites, made in the Year 1888,- Observations at the Royal ObservaCircle, Ephemeris of the Satellites of Uranus, tory, Greenwich, of Comet e, 1888, with the Transit 1889,' by Mr. A. Marth,- Observations of the Moon made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, during the Year 1888, and a Comparison of the Results with the Tabular Places from Hansen's Lunar Tables,' by Mr. E. J. Stone,-and Ephemeris for Physical Observations of the Moon, 1889, April 1st to June 30th,' by Mr. A. Marth.

6

munion cup and cover, probably of local make, circa 1650, from Preen, Salop; a mother-o'-pearl tray of Turkish workmanship; and a bloodstone, long in power of arresting bleeding.-Mr. Thorpe exhibited the possession of his family, supposed to have the a bronze celt of unusual form, with oblique cutting edge, from Ipplepen, Devon.-The following gentle. men were elected Fellows: Sir W. Crossman, Rev. J. Morris, Rev. J. R. Boyle, Messrs. R. G. Glover, W. A. Lindsay, W. M. Conway, A. Wyon, M. H. C. Palmer, W. C. Lefroy, J. C. Priestley, J. S. Lucas, and W. Wallis.

STATISTICAL-Jan. 15.-Mr. F. B. Garnett, V.P., in the chair.-The paper read was On the Amount and Incidence of Imperial Taxation in Different Countries,' by Mr. J. S. Jeans.

MATHEMATICAL-Jan. 10.-Mr. J. J. Walker, President, in the chair.-Messrs. G. H. Bryan and W. W. Taylor were elected Members, and Miss M. T. Meyer was admitted into the Society.-Mr. Basset made a few remarks on the steady motion and stability of dynamical systems.-Dr. Glaisher gave several forms of expression of Bernoulli's numbers derived from the consideration of lemniscate functions.-The President (Sir J. Cockle in the chair) read a paper on Results of Ternary Quadratic Operators on Products of Forms of any Orders. Mr. Jenkins communicated a note by Mr. R. W. Christie on a theorem in combinations.

NEW SHAKSPERE.-Jan. 11.-Dr. F. J. Furnivall in the chair.-Mr. R. G. Moulton read a paper On the Distinction between Classical and Shaksperian Plot, illustrated by the Recasting the Plot of" Macbeth" in Classic Form.' This would necessitate the introduction of a lyric element, a chorus. Such a chorus would naturally be found in the clansmen of Macbeth; lyric matter abounded in the play, but it would have to be collected, drained out as it were, from the body of the play. The "unities" necessitated the dropping out of the part of Banquo, the appearance of Macduff only as an adversary to the sympathies of the chorus, and the confining of the scene, say, to the courtyard of Dunsinane Castle, and the time to the day of Macbeth's death. There was a prologue ready made in Hecate's speech (III. v.). For parode we should have the chorus coming to inquire after the queen's illness (V. i.), leading up to Ode I., thoroughly Greek in subject, a passiondriven woman, a man afflicted with frenzy sent from heaven. In Episode I. the doctor and attendant would discuss with the chorus the queen's condition; the sleep-walking scene following, and the queen and chorus, in stage lyrics, strophe and antistrophe, dealing with the three ideas which dominate her delirious utterances the idea of blood, of her husband and his cowardice, and of Lady Macduff's murder, "The Thane of Fife had a wife"; the scene ending with rhesis from the doctor on the subject, "Can I minister to a mind diseased?" Ode III., on the wonders of clairvoyance, would bring in at last the whole story, which could not be acted, not coming within the crisis. In Episode III. we should have a forensic contest-a feature in particular favour with Athenians-between Macbeth and (for Macduff) a herald, material for arguments being found in two scenes in the play. Ode IV. would indicate the shadow of turning in the action, "Evil hath its judgment in this world." In Episode IV. a messenger's speech would give opportunity for epic poetry; while Ode V. dealt with a favourite Greek theme, "How the oracles have misled." As no duel could be fought on the stage, the climax would have to be arranged for in Episode V. by the story of Macduff's birth and consequent consternation of the chorus, who proceed, in Ode VI., to tell how the oracles have paltered with them.' Exodus: the corpse of Macbeth is brought in, and Macduff enters in triumph and consoles the chorus; he has warred only against the tyrant. The chorus conclude with a strain of pity for their late chief, but the will of Heaven has triumphed and delivered their country from wrong.

ARISTOTELIAN.-Jan. 14.-Mr. S. H. Hodgson, President, in the chair.-Mr. M. H. Dziewicki read a paper On the Starting-point and First Conclusions of Scholastic Philosophy.'

SHORTHAND.-Jan. 2.-Mr. J. G. Petrie, President, in the chair.-The following new members were elected: Fellows, Messrs. A. L. Fieldson, G. L. Bannerman, and A. J. G. Anson; Associate, Mr. A. E. Hankins.-M. A. Lelioux, Paris, was appointed Hon. Secretary for France.-Mr. A. Janes read a paper on his new system, Shorthand without Complications. His system, he explained, supplied the deficiencies of Taylor's alphabet. He had succeeded in doing this by combining, for the first time, thick and thin signs, for the phonetic pairs of letters, with looped characters. He had thus devised what he claimed to be the most copious and expressive

consonant alphabet ever published, possessing unequalled powers of joining, and preserving the distinctive features of Taylor's system, viz., one character for one letter, and the exclusion of the diagonal quadrate signs used by Pitman, who in that respect followed Byrom and Lewis, and not Taylor, as many persons supposed.

HUGUENOT.-Jan. 9.-Mr. A. G. Browning, V.P., in the chair.-The following were elected Fellows: Rev. E. R. Bernard, Rev. A. van Scheltema, Messrs. A. L. Cohen, T. Dorman, and D. Halpin.-A paper was read by the Rev. Canon Floyd' On the Huguenot Settlement at Portarlington,' tracing the early history of that town, and the subsequent influence of the French settlers upon it and the neighbouring

parts of Ireland.

MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. Mox. Royal Academy. 4. Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall; 8, •Painting. Mr. J. E. Hodgson. London Institution, 5.- Astronomical Photography,' Mr. A. A. Common. Victoria Institute. 8. Investigations on the Science of Language and of Ethnography,' Prof. Leitner.

Society of Arts, 8.- Egyptian Tapestry and Textiles,' Lecture I., Mr. A. S Cole Cantor Lecture,.

ROYAL HOUSE of STUART. — EXHIBITION of PORTRAITS, MINIATURES, and PERSONAL RELICS connected with the ROYAL HOUSE of STUART. Under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen. OPEN DAILY from 10 AM to 7 PM.-Admission, 1s.; Season Tickets, 5s. New Gallery, Regent Street.

to this early work in stone of our Christian forefathers of the seventh century, there is a still more ancient interest attaching to this remarkable underground church, or rather to the stones and slabs of which it is com

The Abbey of St. Andrew, Hexham. By Charles Clement Hodges. (Privately printed.)

THE noble church of Hexham, a fabric of a singularly diversified character, and abounding in exceptionally interesting historic associations, has hitherto escaped special treatment at the hands of either draughtsman or ecclesiologist. Those who Those who were interested in its history, unless they had access to the two privately printed volumes of the Surtees Society that deal with Hexham, had to search for articles in the Ecclesiologist, Gentleman's Magazine, or various archæological journals, or to be content with a handbook of Mr. A. B. Wright, published in 1823; whilst photodence which we ought to expect of former Glacial Periods, graphs, that never can reproduce details

Te Royal Institution, 3.- Before and After Darwin,' Prof. G J.
Romanes

Civil Engineers, 8.-Further Discussion of The Compound
Principle as applied to Locomotives.

Society of Arts, 8. Some Recent Movements in Relation to the
Applied Arts,' Sir J. D. Linton.

Anthropol gical Institute, 8) -Annual Meeting.

WED. United Service Institution, 3.-The Recent Changes in the
Drill of the German Army.' Capt. W. H. Sawyer.
Royal Academy. 4.- Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall.
Literature, 8-Ariosto and the Romance of Chivalry in Italy
in the Fourteenth Century,' Mr. C. H. E. Carmichael.
Geological, 8.- Prevailing Misconceptions regarding the Evi-

Dr. J Croll; Remains of Bocene and Mesozoic Chelonia, and
on a Tooth of Ornithopsis,' Mr. R. Lydekker; Dentition of
Lepidotus maximus, Wagn., as indicated by Specimens from
the Kimmeridge Clay of Shotover Hill, near Oxford,' Messrs.
R Etheridge and H. Willett.
Society of Arts, 8.- Electric Meters for Central Stations,' Prof.
G. Forbes.
Some Minor Welsh Poets of the Georgian
Era,' Mr. R. H. Williams.
THURS. Royal Institution, 3.- The Metamorphoses of Minerals,' Prof.
J. W. Judd.
Royal, 44.

Cymrodorion.

satisfactorily, were the only representations of the fabric and its fittings. But this state of things has now been entirely altered. Mr. Hodges is already favourably known as an architect of antiquarian tastes by his Illustrations of the Priory of St. Mary, Blyth,' and by his Medieval Sepulchral Slabs of the County of Durham,' but this monograph is a great advance upon anythe Infant Christ to Walk, Miss M. Stokes; Sculptured thing he has hitherto undertaken. After

London Institution, 6.-'The Times of the Twelve Cæsars,' Rev.
Canon Benham.

Royal Academy, 8.- Painting.' Mr. J. B_Hodgson.
Electrical Engineers, 8.-Insulation Resistance of Electric
Light Installations,' Prof. A. Jamieson.
Antiquaries, Sculptured Cross at Kelloe,' Rev. J. T.
Fowler; Miniature Painting of the Blessed Virgin teaching

Doorways of the Lady Chapel of Glastonbury Abbey, Mr.
W. H. St. John Hope; Astrolabe of English Manufacture,'
Chancellor Ferguson.

Royal Academy, 4- Demonstrations,' Mr. J. Marshall.

Civil Engineers, 7- Water Softening and Filtering Apparatus for Locomotive Purposes at the Taff Vale Railway Company's Penarth Dock Station, near Cardiff,' Mr. W. W. F. Pullen (Students' Meeting).

Society of Arts, 8. The Asiatic Colonization of East Africa,' Mr H. H. Johnston.

Royal Institution. 9.- Meteorites and the History of Stellar Systems, Pro! G H Darwin.

Royal Institution, 3.-The Great Composers and their Works,' Prof. E. Pauer.

Physical, 3.-Notes on Polarized Light.' &c., Prof. S. P. Thompson; Divergence of Electromotive Forces from Thermochemical Data,' Prof. E. F. Herroun.

Botanic 31-Election of Fellows.

Science Gossip.

THE forty-second annual general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be held on the evenings of Wednesday, January 30th, Thursday, January 31st, and Friday, February 1st, at 25, Great George Street, Westminster. The annual report of the council will be presented, and the election of the president, vice-presidents, and members of council, and the ordinary election of new members, associates, and graduates, will take place on Wednesday. The president, Mr. Carbutt, having been in office for two years, will retire, and will induct into the chair the president elect, Mr. C. Cochrane. The appointment of a professional accountant to audit the accounts of the present year will be made. The following papers will be read and discussed, as far as time permits : Supplementary Paper on the Use of Petroleum Refuse as Fuel in Locomotive Engines,' by Mr. Thomas Urquhart; 'On Compound Locomotives,' by Mr. R. H. Lapage; and 'On the Latest Development of Roller Flour Milling,' by Mr. H. Simon.

ANOTHER Small planet, No. 282, was discovered by Dr. J. Palisa at Vienna on the 4th inst., raising the number of those found by him to sixty-nine.

FINE ARTS

ROYAL SOCIETY of PAINTERS in WATER COLOURS -The WINTER EXHIBITION of SKETCHES and STUDIES is NOW OPEN. Pall Mall East, from 10 till 5-Admission, 1s. Catalogue, 6d. ALFRED D. FRIPP, R.W.S., Secretary.

testing it in various places, we are able to say that the summary of the history of Hexham as well as the description of the church and the conventual buildings are written with clearness, originality, and accuracy, the notes bearing witness to the author's painstaking research.

The story is pleasantly told of the founding of the monastery of Hexham by St. Wilfrid in 674, four years before the founding of the sister house at Ripon; of the establishment of the bishopric in 681, which lasted till 821, when Tydfrith, the last prelate, being driven away by the Danes, died during a journey to Rome; of the subsequent time when provosts and hereditary priests ruled over the town and church; of the rebuilding of the ruined church in 1112, and the founding of a priory of Austin Canons; of the suppression of the monastery, and of the hanging of the last prior at Tyburn for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace;

and of the remarkable vicissitudes of fortune that have overtaken the holders of the monastic property since the Dissolution, whether those to whom it was originally granted or who obtained it by subsequent purchase. The best chapter is the one that deals with the church erected here by St. Wilfrid, which, from the ingenuity of its construction and the surpassing beauty of its equipments, is said by the old chroniclers to have been the fairest ecclesiastical edifice on this side of the Alps. For the first time the wonderful crypt of Hexham, with its barrel vaults, lamp niches, and funnel-shaped apertures, which can only be compared with its counterpart at Ripon, and which is all that remains to us of the work of St. Wilfrid, is described and illustrated with careful perspicuity. Notwithstanding the interest pertaining

of which are tooled in the manner known as

"The crypt of St. Wilfrid's church is in a great part, if not entirely, formed of stones which were worked by Roman hands. Many of these have formed the ornamental details of large and important buildings. The walls of this crypt are faced with large squared blocks, many broaching,' which is peculiar to the Roman work in the north of England. The covering of the passages is effected by using large slabs which have been torn from the faces of buildings. With one exception, these slabs are placed with the finished or inscribed side uppermost; hence whatever sculptures or inscriptions they may bear are lost to us, but the holes for receiving the iron cramps, by means of which they were held in position, are strikingly visible on most of them."

The exception is notable, and affords an inscription of peculiar historical interest. It is of the time of the Emperor Severus, and has contained the name of Publius Septimius Geta, which has been erased as Caracalla ordered, but not so completely but that the letters can be deciphered without much trouble. Recently (October, 1881) another noteworthy discovery was made by Mr. Hodges, when exploring beneath the floor at the south end of the south transept. A great slab was found, 9 ft. by 3 ft., weighing about two tons. On being reversed it was found to be elaborately carved, and represents a cavalry officer riding roughshod over a prostrate foe. The horseman wears a coat of mail, has a shield in his left hand, and in his right hand firmly grasps a standard.

The inscription shows that the stone has been a tombstone erected to a deceased soldier, and may be thus rendered: "To the Gods the Shades. Flavinus, a horse soldier of the cavalry regiment of Petriana, standard-bearer to the troop of Candidus, twenty-five years of age, having served seven years in the army, is here laid." Of this stone-as, indeed, is the case with all the Roman and Saxon sculptured stones discovered about the fabric of the church-an accurate drawing is given. Hexham abounds in stones of Roman origin, and Mr. Hodges is no doubt right in contending that they were brought from Corstopitum, which was situate three and a half miles from Hexham and immediately

to the west of the modern town of Corbridge. Corstopitum was the largest and most important of all the Roman stations in Northumbria, and, owing to its favoured situation in a sheltered valley close to the Tyne, seems to have been chosen as a residence by wealthy Roman colonists.

The

The remains of the old fittings of the medieval church of Hexham are varied and exceptional. The descriptions and careful lithographs (from full-size drawings) of the woodwork will delight ecclesiologists, and should prove invaluable to architects. richly carved and painted rood-screen, the screen of the Ogle shrine (1410), the chantry of Prior Leschman (1499) with a wooden screen upon a stone basement, the quaint painted pulpit, and the unique "Frithstool," are all portrayed with fulness and vigour. Of the furniture of St. Wilfrid's

church the only part that has survived to our times is the stone chair termed the "Frith - stool." It is probable that this was the cathedra, or bishop's seat, of the Saxon church, introduced by St. Wilfrid at the time when he himself filled the see of Hexham. It was afterwards used as a seat of sanctuary in the medieval days when the church had ceased to be an episcopal seat. There is a curious classical feeling about the design of this chair, carved from a single block of stone, and probably Prof. G. F. Browne is right in his recent surmise that it was modelled after a similar chair that St. Wilfrid had seen during his sojourn at Rome. This ancient relic, one of the most curious remnants of early ecclesiastic art that we possess in England, has been so perpetually shifted about during the present century that the only wonder is that it is still extant. At the beginning of the century it was in front of the first column from the east on the north side of the choir, its position in mediaval days. When the choir was repewed in 1830, the Frith-stool was removed into the north aisle behind Prior Leschman's chantry. In 1858-9, when all the old arrangements of the choir were ruthlessly swept away, it was moved to the south transept. On this occasion the moulding under the seat was destroyed, and the seat itself broken in two. In 1872 the stool was removed to its ancient position in the choir; but in 1885 it was moved yet again, and placed on the south side of the altar with its back against the east wall, a position for which it is altogether unsuited. We agree with Mr. Hodges in desiring yet one more translation, namely, to its old and proper place, and then we should like to see it scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Act.

contents.

Pen and Ink Notes at the Glasgow Exhibition, by T. R. Davidson (Virtue & Co.), seems to us to be neither a useful record of the lately closed exhibition nor a guide to its more important It is too slight and sketchy for the one purpose, and too flimsy-to say nothing of numerous omissions-for the other. The author is not well informed who says that machinery lacks "picturesqueness," and is not "attractive to artists." The statements are untrue, and if they were true it would be the artists' fault. He was severe upon Scottish women when he said that "their imagination and their taste must be cultivated." We dare say nothing of Scottish taste, but of the imagination of Scottish women there is superabundant evidence in song and legend. What nonsense it is to talk of cultivating the imagination! Are we to have Board schools for Scottish poets? The smaller cuts, especially the figures and portraits, are tolerably good; the large plates but indifferent.

NEW PRINTS.

MESSRS. SHEPHERD BROTHERS are the publishers of a large etching, of which we have received an artist's proof on Japanese paper, printed in a brilliant and telling manner in brown, by Mr. W. Hole from A Mill on the Yare,' by John Crome. The picture was evidently designed on the model of Rembrandt's 'Mill' which is now at Bowood, although the composition is not the same. The etching strongly reminds us-we say so without depreciating a very valuable process-of a photogravure worked upon in the manner of etching and with not a little mezzotint. At any rate, although a little dull and slightly opaque in some of the shadows, it is an effective example of what a clever artist can produce without excessive pains, in order to give the character of the glowing sunset of a stormy day, with deep shadows on masses of buildings facing us, and wealth of reflections of buildings on very calm water near the front. Successful as, within certain limits, the etching is, technique of this sort is liable to great abuse.

the street without.

Messrs. Buck & Reid send us an artist's proof of a print called 'Little Nell,' mezzotinted by Mr. E. Slocombe after a picture by Miss F. Graham, intended to represent Dickens's heroine seated at a window of her grandfather's house, watching the people pass in the twilight along The girl looks downward with a pensive and ingenuous air and expression, which are pathetic, and clasps one knee between her hands. The face does not suggest Little Nell to us, but as it is pretty and tender, well drawn and modelled, we may praise it. The etching, which has been executed with a rather heavy hand, is nevertheless an accomplished piece of work.-Herr Bruck-Lagos painted, Mr. Lowenstam etched, and Mr. Lefèvre published an etching of which we have a proof with the remarque (a palette and scroll) entitled 'A Quartette, a Rehearsal,' showing Herren Joachim, Ries, and Straus, and Signor Piatti in a room with their instruments in hand and music sheets before them. The composition of the group is not happy, but the light and shade, the verisimilitude of the faces and figures, and the faithful treatment of these figures and the furniture, their local tones and colours, leave nothing to be desired. Mr. Lowenstam has done his part with extreme care and judgment; so much, indeed, of these qualities is shown in the print that we should like to know how much of them is due to the engraver, how much to the painter. Messrs. Frost & Reed (Bristol and Clifton) have published, Mr. F. Paton has etched, and Mr. J. Hardy painted

It is impossible to write with patience of the outrageous and shameless destruction that went on in the church of Hexham in 1858, under the name of "restoration." Mr. Hodges is not one whit too strong in writing of this "raid " as a permanent disgrace to Hexham." Fortunately Mr. Hodges is able to give drawings and plans of the church in general, and of some of its fittings, before this destruction swept over the abbey. This splendid, well-bound, and excellently printed volume is of imperial folio size (22 in. by 15 in.), so that there is abundant space for the plates. There are no fewer than sixty-four full-page plates, in addition to tailpieces, which completely illustrate the church, its furniture and tombs, and all the remaining portions of the conventual buildings. The mouldings have been taken full size with the cymagraph, and reduced to scale on the drawings. We have, then, in this fine work, well worthy of the high repute of English ecclesiastical architects, a complete history and architectural analysis of the abbey of Hexham. We had noted down a few slips of style, and a few errors of minor moment, such as the wrong estimate of the conversi of an Austin house as the mere "servants of the convent "; but it is not worth while to pursue these very sparsely-scattered proofs of inevitable humanRabbiting,' a long limbed lad seated on a bank infirmity when the reviewer has the exceptional delight of reading, studying, and enjoying a nearly perfect book.

in charge of two dogs and a pile of dead rabbits. The artist's proof before us testifies sufficiently to the spirit of the design and to the very competent draughtsmanship of the painter and etcher. The latter possesses much skill, his plate being rich in tone and colour and full

So far as it

of light. His handling is excellent and would suit work of any character, especially fine rustic subjects embodying the qualities we have mentioned. The faces both of the boy and the dogs are first rate. From the same publishers we have received an artist's proof of a plate by Mr. A. C. Alais after a picture called A Plan of Campaign' (by Mr. W. H. Trood), a ragged jackdaw preaching from the edge of an empty cask to a group of hungry dogs assembled on the ground. goes, which is quite as far as the picture needed, the engraver's interpretation is more than respectable, the three dogs in front being excellent. Three capital mezzotints by Mr. J. Finnie reach us from the same quarter. The designs are Mr. Finnie's. They depict striking effects of lowering twilight and storms impending over romantic landscapes, and form a series called 'The Brook,' and illustrate three lines of the Laureate's famous poem with sympathy and spirit. We like best the hill-side, stream, and meadow named "I murmur under moon and stars," which is full of romantic dignity; but "And out again I curve and flow," and "I come from haunts of coot and hern," a wild and stony moorland just after sunset, are both most acceptable.

It