424
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL MAY 29, 1915.
Studies and Nof.es supplement 'art/ to Stubbs's
Constitutional Hitory. II. By Charles Petit-
Dutaillis, Hector of the Academy of Grenoble.
(Manchester University Press, 5s. net.)
M. PETIT-DUTAILLIS, who is also a Professor in the University of Lille, is known to be a profoundly learned student of English institutions, and has
Siblished some excellent volumes of criticisms on e subject. This is the second volume illustrative of and supplementary to Bishop Stubbs's ' Consti- tutional History,' and has been translated from the Trench by Mr.'W. T. Waugh. The Notes, which are really treatises, are but two in number, but they deal with subjects which have had a supreme influence in shaping the history of our country 'The Forest' and 'The Rising of 1381.' The Forest, as a visible embodiment of the royal right of chase in mediaeval England, testified to the arbitrary and tyrannical personal rule exercised by the Norman kings and their immediate succes- sors. It was a vast region set apart for the sport of the monarch, called foresta because it lay out- side (foris) or independent of all private property. The writer of the ' Dialogus de Scaccario ' (temp. Henry II.), who first used the word, imagined that it came from jera, wild animal, and we are sur- prised to find that so sound a scholar as the author countenances this as a possible derivation. How grievously this prerogative was abused may be inferred from a statement of Polydore Vergil that at one time a third of the soil of England was engrossed by forest and parks, and the complaint of Moryson that England harboured more deer than all the rest of Europe. Indeed, Dr. Round does not hesitate to say that under the first two Henrys the whole of Essex was one great forest. The author points out the economic and political dangers resulting from this arbitrary system, and proceeds to show that as a natural outcome of the Conquest it became " the most oppressive and the most hated of the institutions which the Norman and Angevin kings sought to impose on their subjects, and consequently strengthened the hos- tility of the barons, and furthered the union of the English against the despotic power of the Crown." A separate chapter is devoted to the origin of " the Purlieu," a disafforested region, the name being derived from the French poralce (Lat. perambulatio), an inquisition for delimiting the forest by rangers. The Rebellion of 1381, says Bishop Stubbs, was " one of the most portentous phenomena in the whole of English history." It was more, says Prof. Petit-Dutaillis ; " it was one of the most significant and most interesting events in the whole history of -the Middle Ages." It may be traced, he thinks, to two chief causes : (1) the great disorder and general unsettlement of social relations due to the Black Death in 1348-9, which is believed to have carried off half the population and led to the oppressive Statutes of Labourers ; and (2) the war with France, which drove the Crown to lavish ex- penditure and the raising of heavy taxes. The immediate impulse to the rising was not given, as sometimes asserted, by the religious influence of the Lollards, but by the odious Poll Tax of 1380, which precipitated the long-festering discontent and envy of the poorer classes.
We cannot lay down M. Petit-Dutaillis's studies
without being impressed by his wide and intimate
knowledge of the literature of the period, which
would be remarkable even in an Englishman.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library : April.
(Manchester, the Library ; London, Longmans,
Qd.)
THIS Bulletin contains the Report for last year, during which 4964 volumes of printed books and manuscripts were added to the Library. A classified list of these is given, the Librarian favour- ing this form of cataloguing as distinguished from the alphabetical method, as it " preserves the unity of the subject, and by so doing enables a student to follow its various ramifications with ease and certainty." We agree with this when, as in the case of the Rylands Library, the classification is done by experts.
As early as December last the Governors of the Library resolved to " give some practical expression to their deep feelings of sympathy with the authori- ties of the University of Louvain in the irreparable loss which they have suffered, through the bar- barous destruction of the University buildings and the famous library," arid the editor writes on the action proposed to be taken. The Librarian has been instructed to make a selection, from the stock of duplicates which have gradually accu- mulated in the Library, of works to be presented to the Louvain authorities. The first instalment of the proposed gift, of which a list is supplied, numbers upwards of two hundred volumes, and Prof. Carnoy says of it: "Your donation will have an important place in the reconstruction of our University, since it is one of the very first acts which tend to the preparation of our revival." At the request of the Louvain authorities, the books will remain in the charge of the Rylands trustees until such time as the new buildings are ready to receive them, and the trustees will gladly take charge of any further gifts of suitable works which other institutions or private individuals may decide to offer. The Bulletin will give each quarter a careful register of the names and addresses of donors, together with an exact record of the gifts. In order to avoid needless duplication, it is suggested that in the first instance a list of the works proposed to be presented should be sent to the Rylands Library. The contents of the number include a description of the treasures of the Louvain Library by Prof, van der Essen.
ON all communications must be written the name
and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub-
lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
"!N SILEXTIO.'" Forwarded.
MR. M. L. R. BRESLAR. For Grillion's Club see 11 S. vii. 349, 390, 420, 474 ; viii. 30, 57, 495.
W. M. E. F. MR. ARCHIBALD SPARKE writes : " George MacDon aid's Poetical Works are still in print, the publishers being Messrs. Chatto & Windus, 111, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C. A volume entitled ' Verses,' by Edward Metcalfe, was issued by Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall, of Stationers' Hall Court, London, in 1891, but it appears to be now out of print."
