118
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. i. FEB. 6, im.
peculiar attraction in its mixture of grey ston
walls and green hedges, which has, we think
hitherto escaped the notice of chroniclers. Mr
Evans offers abundant evidence of the sacred o
perhaps we should say magic quality of the stones
They are said to resist efforts to carry them awaj
for use elsewhere. They a t e, however, much de
cayed since the time of the older pictures of them
and in many case,s have fallen down into indistinc
masses. This has led to a piece of folk-lore, whicl
Mr. Evans does not mention, that any one whc
goes round the circle and makes the number of the
stones the same thrice can have any wish he ha
thought of. Besides this main circle, which i
clearly of the same character as Stonehenge, thert
are in a neighbouring field remains of a dolmen
known as the " Whispering Knights" and a serie
of little stones leading down the hill to the ok
coach road. Speculation as to the builders of these
monuments seems futile ; but Mr. Evans has glossec
the word "Bollright" as the rule of Roland, thus
connecting the stones with similar continenta
monuments which acquired the name of Roland. No
traces of interment were, apparently, found by the
excavators who dug inside the circle two centuries
since, but Mr. Evans is probably right in thinking
that it was a burial-place. He does not mention
the fact, but local and oral tradition speaks oi
skeletons as found here.
The county abounds in many other features of historic interest, places such as Ewelme, Burford, and Edgehill offering material for good chapters. Mr. Walter Money is more sanguine as to realizing the plan of battle at the last spot than we have been when we stood there, for the luxuriant growth of trees now venerable, but not extant in Prince Rupert's day, has altered the appearance of the ground.
Mr. T. A. Cook is a little disappointing on ' The Rise of the Colleges at Oxford,' and we think a writer with more expert knowledge, rather than a compiler, should have been secured by the editor. ' Town and Gown at Oxford,' by B. J. Stapleton, is more learned, but ends with a Latin misprint in a familiar quotation.
The illustrations in the volume, which are well executed, include pictures of Broughton Castle, Blenheim Palace, and Ewelme Church, besides many other notable relics of history. There are accounts of several old places and churches. We have, in fact, only touched on one or two articles in this highly interesting volume, which, though occa- sionally careless in style, ought to attract a wide circle of readers, and possibly an increasing amount of visitors to remote Oxfordshire, which is not far from Stratford, and still holds some of Shake- speare's dialect. There is much to see, and no one, if he takes things the right way, which is not the way of the " hustler," need find himself regarded as a "furriner," and floored by the shrewd display of ignorance which the town-bred take for stupidity.
Kings Letters, from the Days of Alfred to the Accession of the Tudors. Newly edited by Robert bteele. (Moring.)
To the " King's Classics," issued from the De La More Press, has been added a carefully edited volume comprising a selection of the private letters of English kings, written chiefly during the three hundred years of the Plantagenet monarchs. It was at first intended to reprint Halliwell's ' Letters of the Kings of England.' These were found to be
at once inadequate and unrepresentative, and the
conduct of the scheme has accordingly been altered
and improved. Many of the letters are illuminatory
and valuable, and the book constitutes an important
contribution to historical knowledge.
The British Journal of Psychology. Edited by James Ward and W. H. R. Rivers. Vol. i. Part I. (Cambridge, University Press.) PHILOSOPHY is sometimes accused with reason of being out of touch with life ; psychology in its modern developments is a study of paramount importance which is yielding interesting results every day concerning practical life. Dr. Ward, whose masterly book on Agnosticism will be known to most readers, has secured an able band of coadjutors, and we are glad that this country can at last boast of a journal which is the eighth of its kind in the last fifteen years, but the first to appear in England. In the present part Dr. Ward writes on ' The Definition of Psychology,' and two papers are concerned with sensations of the eye.
THE February number of i\ie Burlington Magazine, issued from 17, Berners Street, under the editorship of Messrs. C. J. Holmes and Robert Dell, contains some new features. What seems to be the most striking is the appearance of a finely coloured reproduction of a miniature by Drouais (there were three of the name : this is presumably Hubert), giving portraits of the Marquis and Marquise de Beauharnais, with a black youth who holds up the picture, and a man, presumably the painter, who uncovers it. A second work by the same painter is the picture of the son of the Marquis at the age of ten. Both pictures are marvels. A desire is at length granted, on which we expressed from the first, and the huge wedges of text of which we complained are broken up. The frontis- oiece consists of a portrait by Romney of Jane, Duchess of Gordon. Mr. Claude Phillips writes on ' A Bronze Relief in the Wallace Collection,' and VIr. C. H. Wylde on the ' Jerningham Collection of English Glass.' The illustrations to these and other articles are of singular beauty.
A PROPORTION much larger than usual of the Fortnightly is devoted this month to literary and artistic subjects. The first article, which bears a "ong list of signatures, is occupied with an appeal n favour of help for the British stage. This is well meant, but nothing short of a revolution in our theatrical system will work any solid gain. Mr. F. Hall gives extracts on English subjects fron> Napoleon's note-books. Mr. Arthur Waugh writes an George Gissing, and Mr. Francis Gribble on Eugene Sue. In its closing pages the last-named article deals with the Jesuits. Le Comte de Se"gur elects for comment three French novels of recent )irth. Mr. William Watson bewails ' The State- )iscouragement of Literature,' a thing for which writers are themselves partly to blame. Mr. Alfred R. Wallace prints ' Leonaine,' a poem litherto unpublished of Poe, and Mr. Stephen
wynn writes on ' The Life of a Song.' In the Nineteenth Century Mr. Herbert Paul, in his
Religion of the Greeks,' takes for text the recently >ublished ' Prolegomena to the Study of the Greek Religion ' of Miss Harrison (Cambridge University 3 ress). What he says is both important and well aid, though the article as a whole is discursive. A Forgotten Volume in Shakspeare's Library*'
