338
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vm. OCT. 25, 1913.
" Grace," and is fed by blood from, the Five
Wounds ; this blood flows down the long
red upright of the cross to its base, to which
are attached seven common faucets, each
marked as one of the seven sacraments.
There is a vast contrast between such an
emblem as a faucet and the heart which
each penitent sinner, in Miss Underbill's
pictures, holds up to catch some of the
redeeming blood. Can any prototype be
suggested for the cruder representation ?
ROCKINGHAM.
Boston, Mass.
MAEKYATE (11 S. viii. 188, 253). As a gloss on the word yate=gate it may be of interest to note that the east window of Long Buckby Church, Northamptonshire, contains a shield of arms bearing the canting charge of three gates. This refers to the late Rev. Canon C. A. Yate, Vicar of Long Buckby 1856-79. JOHN T. PAGE.
" MISTER " AS A SURNAME (11 S. viii. 209, 278). The following excerpts are at the references given :
(Gentleman's Magazine, Jnly, 1797. Ecclesiastical Preferments. Rev. Samuel Wright Mister, M.A., Little Rollright living, co. Oxford.
Ibid., November, 1805. Marriages. Nov. 19, at Worcester, the Rev. Sam' Mister, B.D., Fellow of St. John's College. Oxford, to the only daughter of the late Lieut. -Col. De La Motte, of Batsford, co. Glouc.
Annual Register, 1841, 342-52. Contains a full account of the trial and conviction of Josiah Misters, on 23 March, 1841, for wounding one Mackreth at " The Angel Inn," Ludlow, Salop, on 20 August, 1840.
W. B. H.
0tt
Anthony Trollope : his Work, Associates, and
Literary Originals. By T. H. S. Escott. (John
Lane.)
MR. ESCOTT approached the task of writing an account of Anthony Trollope's life and work with some unusual advantages. Not only was he well acquainted with the subject of the biography, and with many of his friends and associates, but he had been supplied by Trollope himself with a number of important particulars directly intended for the use to which they have here been put.
Trollope is presented in these pages as a some- what remote, a somewhat elusive figure an effect perhaps of the absence of letters, and the almost equal absence of direct quotations from his conver- sation or private opinions. We see him in relation to his mother, in relation to his official work, in relation bo his books, but some last touch of actuality is wanting to make this portrait live painstaking, detailed, and interesting though it be. No very thoroughgoing criticism of the novels is attempted,
but the plots of several of them are given in a full
outline, and we must confess that we regretted this,
as distracting one's attention from their author
without any compensating advantage.
The best parts of the book, on the whole, are those which describe Trollope's activities as a Post-Office official, and give examples of the way in which he gathered the materials he employed in his writings. His observation was scientific in its accuracy and range, as also in its rapid, practised estimation of detail. His position in life brought him into contact with a great number and variety of his fellow-creatures, whom he often saw on special occasions, favourable for making mental notes of peculiarities. Besides this he evidently possessed the temperament which evokes genuine self-expression from other people, whether in the way of liking or disliking. And he had, both in dealing with prac- tical affairs and in literary construction, all the advantages which can be derived from an unbending adherence to tradition from a strong feeling for the framework, the articulation, so to put it, of society as distinct from its more fluid and ostensibly more vital constituents.
Mr. Escott has a good deal that is particularly welcome to tell us of Trollope as a sportsman, and of Trollope as surveyor, administrator, and traveller, and again of Trollope as a politician, giving not only general description, but pleasant instances of his achievements. Thus to take one small example, he tells how it was Trollope who reported on the useful- ness of roadside letter-boxes as employed in France, and advised their introduction in England. His suggestion was experimented with in Jersey, where, on a spot chosen by him at St. Heliers, the first pillar- box was set up in 1853.
The life is followed by an excellent bibliography of first editions, compiled by Margaret Lavington, with notes drawn from Trollope's autobiography and from information supplied by his son. There is added a list of biographical articles on Anthony Trollope from Poole's ' Index'.
A Plea for the Study of the Classics. By Alex, Leeper, LL.D. (Melbourne, Melville & Mullen.) WE are glad to have this Inaugural Lecture of the Classical Association of Victoria, delivered by Dr. Leeper as the first President. He brings forward for his view many authorities. The late James Adam supplies the arguments familiar to believers in a liberal education, while the man in the street who seeks the means to get on in a financial sense is confronted with American professors and Ger- man men of science. They are surely up-to-date, and they recognize in Latin an instrument which improves school discipline, and gives elder students powers of expression in their own language un- known to their non - classical competitors. The world of science to-day loses much of its due effect because its practitioners seldom write clearly and logically. The world of letters is full of idle verbosity and untidy thinking, defects which would be sensibly reduced by a training in Latin prose. In the world of business lucidity and precision are equally valuable, and we are not surprised to find an appointment in one of the largest Manchester firms given to a man who knew no bookkeeping, but was a good Greek scholar.
The curse of the classics is pedantry ; but Dr. Leeper has nothing of that; his discourse is easy in style, and, though unrevised, in no way lacks clearness.
