398 NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. XL MAY ir>, ioao.
Place-Names: Books on their Etymology (10 S. xi. 288).—Canon Taylor's early works may be obsolete, but his last compilation, 'Names and their Histories,' second edition, 1898, is a capital book on the general subject of place-names, arranged in dictionary form. Sir Herbert Maxwell's 'Scottish Land-Names,' 1894, and Dr. Joyce's 'Irish Names of Places,' 1875, are good authorities on British names of Celtic origin.
There are many books on Slavonic names, but I need mention only one, Antonin Kotik's 'Nase Prijmeni,' Prague, 1897, which deals exhaustively with Bohemian family and place names. Irigoyen's 'Apellidos Bascongados,' 1881, can be used as a handy list of the Spanish personal and place names which are most characteristic, viz., those of Basque origin.
Mr. H. Gannett's 'Origin of Certain Place-Names in the United States,' 1905, gives a good account of a number of American names of Dutch and Indian origin. Jas. Platt, Jun.
Canon Isaac Taylor may have made mistakes, but is it right to say that his books are now obsolete? I do not myself know of any Englishman who has given us more readable and generally correct work on local names; and I do not believe that his teaching, as a whole, has been superseded. Many readers of 'N. & Q.' must feel, as I do myself, that we owe Canon Taylor much gratitude for the interest his 'Words and Places' awoke in our minds when it first rose on the horizon. Would it really be wise to try to forget what it told us, as soon as we can contrive to do so?
St. Swithin.
The following books may be of use to Mr. Vaughan:—
Much material will also be found scattered about such periodicals as the Revue Celtique, Celtic Review, &c. H. I. B.
'Place-Name Synonyms Classified,' by Austin Farmar, was published in 1904 by Mr. D. Nutt. It consists of a classified list of some three thousand place-names belonging to all parts of the world, followed by an index of root elements and an index of interpretations.
Prof. Skeat has written several volumes upon county place names; for instance, Cambridgeshire, 1901; Huntingdonshire. 1902; Hertfordshire, 1904; and Bedfordshire, 1906. The Hertfordshire volume is procurable from Messrs. Austin & Son, Hertford, and the others from Messrs. Deighton, Bell & Co., Cambridge.
W. B. Gerish.
'Æsop's Fables,' 1821 (10 S. xi. 270).—Dr. Samuel Croxall's first edition of the 'Fables' with woodcuts appeared in 1722. In 1818 Thomas Bewick produced his 'Fables of Æsop.' He was assisted by his son R. E. Bewick, and by two of his pupils, William Temple and William Harvey. Most of his designs are based upon Croxall.
A. R. Bayly.
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
If this parergon to the author's 'Story of a Beautiful Duchess' must on the whole be said to come short in diversity and depth of interest of that erudite and engrossing study of Georgian manners, the cause of this declension lies in the sterility of its theme and the uniformity of its materials. The chronicles of the courtesan are, in the words of Goldsmith, "as destitute of novelty to attract us as they are of variety to entertain: they still present us with the same picture, a picture we have seen a thousand times repeated." In the itineraries of the author's six primrose-wayfarers the same stages, the like adventures, recur. After a more or less lengthy succession of brief liaisons with the richest and the noblest gallants of their time, four of these graceless damosels-errant succeeded in achieving the object of their quest—the nuptial ring. For the other two marriage appears to nave been, not the goal, but the starting-point and initiatory rite of their pilgrimage, which, for the rest, pursued a course parallel to that of the more calculating majority.
It was no easy matter to throw even a semblance of freshness over a narrative, the main episodes and incidents of which are being constantly repeated. That these women should have found a biographer at this late hour is due to the accident which alone renders his ungrateful task possible, or indeed desirable—the accident of their promiscuous relations with a number of the wealthiest and most influential men of their day. Thus they were
