218
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. I. MAR. 12, '98.
day, and with regard to land observes (s.v.
' Day work '), " A daywork is three roods of
land, according to Carr," which is one-twelfth
in excess of MR. ACKERLEY'S fraction of an
acre. Further information may be sought in
the ' H. E. D.,' to which I have been unable
to refer ; but what I have written should
suffice. F. ADAMS.
In a paper by the Earl Percy, F.S.A., in the 'Arch. Jiliana, 1 vol. xix., the writer deals with this word as a measure of land. Doubt- less this paper would interest your corre- spondent MR. ACKERLEY, and throw light on his"dewark." E. B.
'THE BODIAD' (8 th S. xii. 467 ; 9 th S. i. 132). Till recently I had two copies of this poem. One, which was evidently a reprint, had no pub- lisher's name on the title-page and was bound up with a curious collection of similar poems. The frontispiece was a very rough woodcut of a schoolmaster with cap and gown, birch- ing a boy in the fashion at that time pre- valent at most of our public schools. This edition is, I am told, extremely rare. The other, which I believe is still to be met with occasionally, has the following title-page : "Library Illustrative of Social Progress. | The Bodiad. | By | George Coleman. | The Schoolmaster's Joy is to Flog (Gray). | Lon- don, | Cadell & Murray, Fleet Street, 1810." Perhaps some collector of curious books could tell me of other editions of this singular poem. Neither of the University Libraries nor the British Museum Library possesses copies of this poem at least, as a separate volume, though it may possibly be included in some other volume, and catalogued under a different heading. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
MR. HIBGAME writes of 'The History of the Bod ' as having " Bev. Wm. H. Cooper " for its author. It may be as well to put on record that this name was fictitious. No clerical gentleman is responsible for the work which was written by James G. Bertram author, among many other books, of ' The Harvest of the Sea.'
EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.
Hastings.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
The Highlands of Scotland in 1750. With an In troduction by Andrew Lang. (Black wood & Sons. IN the researches he made in the pursuit of Highlan< studies undertaken in connexion with his editorshi] of the ' ' Waverley Novels," and his account of ' Pick! the Spy,' Mr. Lang came, in the King's Library British Museum, upon a folio MS. (No. 104), o unknown authorship, concerning the state of th
lighlands in 1750. The responsibility for this he
s disposed conjecturally to assign to a certain
truce, an official under Government, employed in
749 to survey the estates, forfeited and other, in
he Highlands. Bruce, or whoever the writer may
>e, is a confirmed Whig and Protestant, and is
-iolently prejudiced against the Highlanders in
jeneral, and the Jacobite clans in particular. His
ssertions have accordingly to be taken with due
eservations. He furnishes, however, much useful
nd striking information as to the state of the
lighlands at a time concerning which we have few
rustwprthy documents. Travelling over most of
he Highland districts, he inspects the various
lans, summing up their military possibilities,
which Mr. Lang seems to think he rates too highly,
ind passing comments, often very disparaging, upon
he conditions, social and moral, under which the
lighlanders subsist. At first, while he is among
he Protestant clans, his opinions are moderately
avourable. The people, poor as they often are,
iye by their own labour and industry, and are no
jigger thieves than the inhabitants of the Lowland
jounties. When, however, he proceeds by the
- oast southward and comes to Knoidart, where
Jie people under Glengarry are all " Papists." he is n ' a perfect den of thieves and robbers. The Camerons, though Protestants, have ever been "a wicked and rebellious people" and "a lawless mnditti." More than half of the people in Caith- less " are but pitifull half -starved creatures of a ow, dwarfish stature, whom a stranger would hardly relieve to be inhabitants of Great Britain, so that in army of them by themselves does not deserve to je much valued or feared." The McRaes, again, of Kintail, are "by far the most fierce, warlike, and strongest men under Seaforth," but until recently " were little better than heathens in their principles, and almost as unclean as Hottentots in their way of living. " Abundance of similar opinions are passed, though some clans as the Farquharsons of Inver- caul[d] come in for favourable judgment. The volume constitutes an acceptable reprint, and will commend itself to all interested in Scotch history. It is needless to say that Mr. Lang's introduction adds greatly to its value and attraction.
To be Read at Dusk, and other Stories, Sketches,
and Essays. By Charles Dickens. (Redway.) MR. REDWAY has succeeded in getting together a collection of stories and essays by Dickens, now first reprinted. They are of varied merit, but of very general interest, most of them having been written subsequently to the appearance of ' Pick- wick.' Twenty-four out of forty-six items have never figured in a Dickens bibliography. Mr. F. G. Kitton has ferreted them out from the South Ken- sington Museum and other sources. They cannot fail to be attractive to Dickens students. Some of them, such as the essay on ' Capital Punishment,' have genuine importance ; others, on the acting of Macready and that of Fechter, prove how keen an interest Dickens took in the stage, how just were his observations, and how wide his sym- pathies. Others again, such as that on Sir Walter Scott and his Publisher' and on 'The Drunkard's Children' of Cruikshank, prove how broad and healthy in view Dickens ever was. Many of them have a quasi - autobiographical significance, or at least will be of much use to the future biographer. The opening item, which gives its name to the collection, consists of one or two
