318
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. OCT. 15, im.
William Dawes. Joseph Milner was born in
1744, Isaac in 1750. There can have been no
connexion between the two families.
W. C. B.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Foundations of Modern Europe. By Emil Reich.
(Bell & Sons.)
THIS work, the aim of which is avowedly to supply a sketch of the main facts and tendencies of European history from the year 1756 onwards, consists of twelve lectures delivered by Dr. Emil Reich in the Central Hall in South Kensington of the University of London during the Lent term of 1903. Fully to understand their scope and sig- nificance, it must be taken into account that the author is a Hungarian, and that his views are coloured by patriotic sympathies. They are as a rule " advanced," and occasionally aggressive, and the English or American reader will find much by which he will be surprised, and something by which he may be annoyed. Americans will not be wholly pleased to be reminded that single-handed they won, in the wars of the Revolution, only one im- portant success, or to be told that their praise of Lafayette at the expense of Beaumarchais is a salve to their amour propre, since full recognition of the services of Beaumarchais would entail " the serious reduction of American merit." Even Capt. Mahan, it is pointed out, speaks of " a Frenchman named Beaumarchais " (the italics are ours). Of Vergennes, as of Beaumarchais, few Americans have heard a word of praise. Instead of being a matter pre- sumably of English or American history, the War of American Independence is "in reality and par excellence a European, an international event." Englishmen and Scotchmen are told, concerning Waterloo, that the campaign has features of " such serious importance that while the historian may goodnaturedly tolerate the hymns of praise lavished on the heroes of Cr6cy or Bannockburn, he cannot afford to leave the historical truth with regard to Waterloo in the hands of national advertisers." It is against Austria and things Austrian that Dr. Reich is most vehement : " Marie Louise was the most flippant, the most sensual, and morally the weakest woman of her time. When Napoleon was still in Elba, in 1814, as the prisoner of Europe, and while she was already the mother of a son by Napoleon, she abandoned herself to a one-eyed, wizened, and wasted roue", forgetting both her origin and her duty." This and similar passages are mere vituperation, while others we have marked, but may not quote, are view, not history. Those who seek to get at the real significance of the work should read carefully chap, viii., entitled
- The Reaction.' In so doing they will be struck
with the estimate expressed concerning Wilhelm von Humboldt, who " agreeably surprised the poten- tates with a character so ruthlessly materialistic, so brutally high-handed, that he naturally formed the centre of that Prussian group which was deter- mined to browbeat France at the Congress, and to annihilate Saxony." An idea insisted upon in the later chapters is that Austria should have joined France in 1870 in resisting the Germans. England might also have done well to interfere in the combat. Dr. Reich is not among those who believe
in international wars in Europe. Some literary-
judgments are passed. It is curious to find Shake-
speare and Goethe credited with belonging to the
classical school. We are a little perplexed by
sentences such as these : " Not one of those familiar
figures created by the Romantic poets has had a
firm hold on the imagination of mankind. The
classical writers created their Emilias, Margarets,
Ophelias, and Juliets ; the romantic writers created
only shadows."
Story of the Family of Wandesforde of Kirklington and Castlecomer. Edited by Hardy Bertram McCall. (Simpkin, Marshall & Co.) ' SPECIAL attention is paid in Ireland to genealogy, and some of the most important works of modern times have dealt with records such as those of the Wingfields, Viscounts Powerscourt, the best- known representative of which has died within the present year, and many others. Among the most interesting of these works may be counted the story of the Wandesfordes, Viscounts Castle- comer, and during a few years Earls of Wandes- ford, which has been compiled from original sources by Mr. McCall. For a hundred and twenty years the peerage has been extinct, the estates having devolved upon Anne, daughter of John, fifth Viscount Castlecomer and first Earl of Wandesford, who married, 26 February, 1769, John Butler of Carryicken, subsequently Earl of Or- monde. In the deed-room of Castlecomer House, in the county of Kilkenny, are the Yorkshire evidences since the thirteenth century of the
been so long preserved in Ireland that their exist-
ence is unrecognized by the English historians.
One of these consisting of a deed of gift of his
goods and chattels at Kirtlyngton by William d&
Musters, dated on Wednesday next after the feast
of St. John the Baptist (26 June, 1336) is fac-
similed, as are kindred documents. To this
William de Musters the church of St. Mary, or
St. Michael, at Kirklington, with a fine Perpen-
dicular tower, is supposed to be due. The manor
of Kirklington was bestowed upon the family of
Monasteriis, or De Musters, soon after the Con-
quest, and was transmitted by the marriage, in the-
fourteenth century, of Elizabeth de Musters, the
sole heiress to John de Wandesford, to their suc-
cessors. The work supplies at the outset a pedigree-
of the family of Musters of Kirklington from 1069 to
1396. Subsequent chapters deal with the Wandes-
ford family from 1370 to 1540, from 1540 to 1612,
and from 1640 to to-day, special chapters being
dedicated to the Lord Deputy Wandesford, to the
lordship of Kirklington, and to the manor of Castle-
comer Hipswell and Hudswell. The name
Wandesford comes from the manor so named, now
spelt Wansforth, near Driffield. The early annals
cast an interesting light upon history. In the
time of Richard II. and subsequently the family
seems to have lived in discreet seclusion. Con-
nexions were implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace,
and when, during the rising of the Northern earls
against Elizabeth, the Wandesfords took an active
part in politics, it was fortunately on the winning
side. At this period the records are stirring and
valuable. We learn that the number of persons
executed in Yorkshire was far less than is generally
supposed. Elizabeth's Northern councillors were
