io'" s. v. APRIL 7, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
277
list of the company who were invited to the
Duchess of Richmond's ball. She seems to
have been acquainted with a gentleman
named James, who was then in Belgium ; and
he perhaps was the Mr. James who had
married Lady Emily Stewart, half-sister of
Lord Castlereagh. I am informed that an
edition of Lady De Lancey's narrative with
notes will very soon be published by John
Murray. It would be well if some corre-
spondent could clear up the point at once.
WATERLOOENSIS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
Lincoln : a Historical and Topographical Account of the Citi/. By E. Mansel Sympson. (Methuen &Co.)
THE series of ' Ancient Cities," published by Messrs. Methuen under the general supervision of Mr. B. 0. A. Windle, has received a noteworthy addition in a history of Lincoln by Dr. E. Mansel {Sympson. The pretensions of Lincoln to rank among the most interesting and important of ancient English cities will not be challenged. It lias now found an historian worthy in all respects of zeal and competency, whose life has been passed beneath the shadow of its noble and venerable minster, and in the contemplation of its antiquities. The capacity of the writer to deal with the subject is transmitted, and his volume is piously dedicated to the memory of two workers in the same field. Of these, one is his own remote ancestor, T. S. (Thomas Sympson), who has left in the Gough MS. Collection in the Bodleian " Adversaria ; or, Collections for an History of the City of Lincoln, indigesta Moles, March 25, 1737," and 'Lindurn; or, the History and Antiquities of the City of Lincoln' ; and the second, the late Precentor Venables, a well-known contributor to our columns, and one at whose feet Dr. Mansel Sympson reverently sat. As a proof of the esteem in which the city has been held, the author quotes the famous saying or prophecy, yet far from its complete fulfilment,
Lincoln was, London is, and York shall be The greatest city of the three.
With reference to its name and its Roman origin, it is stated that, " with the possible exception of
Colchester and the actual exception of Koln or
Cologne (Colonia Agrippince) in Europe, no other city has retained any trace of having been a Roman colony in its name at the present day." Afc all periods the history has been stimulating. Four chapters (of which the first is introductory) deal with the history from the earliest times to the Norman Conquest, Lincoln Fair, 1217, and the Commonwealth ; and thence to modern times. Three chapters are devoted to the See and the Cathedral ; one, of special interest, to the Bishop's Palace and the Close ; and one each to the Parish Churches, Monastic Institutions, the Castle and Bail, and the Municipal Government. Some idea how comprehensive is the treatment may be gathered from these statements. A great addi- tional attraction to Dr. Man.sel Sympson's
scholarly work is found in the illustrations of
Mr. E. H. New, which are numerous and beau-
tiful. The full-page designs are drawn principally
from the Minster, and are admirably artistic.
They include designs of the Jews' Houses, which
are striking features in the city. Some charming
initials and tail-pieces are happily illuminator?.
The entire work is a model in its way, and
reflects the highest credit upon all concerned in
its production.
Heroic. Romances of Ireland. By A. H. Leahv
2vols. (Nutt.)
AMONG many attempts to popularize for English readers the heroic romances of Ireland, most of them undertaken with the aid of Mr. Nutt, the present seems the best adapted to achieve its pur-
Case. It forms the second issue of " The Irish Saga ibrary," the first volume of which was also trans- lated by Mr. Feahy. The romances dealt with in the first volume of the present work are ' The Courtship of Etain,' 'Mac Datho's Boar,' 'The Sick-bed of Cuchulain,' ' The Exile of the Sons of Usnach,' and ' The Combat at the Ford.' Those in the second consist of ' Tain Bo Fraioh,' ' The Raid for Dartaid's Cattle,' ' The Raid for the Cattle of Regamon,' 'The Driving of the Cattle of Flidais,* and 'The Apparition of the Great Queen to Cuchulain.' These are translated partly in prose and partly in verse. Of the first story, * The Courtship of Etain,' two versions are given. In order to understand and appreciate the measure in which the translation especially the unrimed por- tionis executed, it is necessary to study closely the helpful and erudite preface to the first volume a preface which, with fine irony, declares that in times when the great literatures of Greece and Rome are regarded as useless, it may be vain to hope " that any attention can be paid to a litera- ture that is quite as useless as the Greek; which deals with a time which, if not actually as far re- moved from ours as are classical times, is yet further removed in ideas." The task is, however, tastefully, and at times, brilliantly, accomplished ; the book may be read with pleasure and advan- tage, and will do much to commend to English students these primitive, finely coloured, and poetic legends, the antiquity of which, though less probably than is sometimes claimed, is high. Tim whole is of value, and reveals to us the principal features and the character of what, in its way, is one of the most interesting literatures of the world.
Bacon's JYora Remtcitatio. By the Rev. \Yalter
Begley. 3 vols. (Gay & Bird.) ENERGETIC indeed are the efforts that are being made to prove that Bacon wrote the works of Shake- speare and Tudor literature generally, and among the participants in the fray the late Mr. Begley was perhaps the most arduously persistent. In the course of the attack upon Shakespeare some philosophic humorist said he had arrived at the conclusion that the works assigned Shakespeare were not his, but were those of another man of the same name, living in the same period. This idea seems now seriously accepted, only the man so self-styled was also called Bacon. Incidentally, too, he seems to have been Bodenham and Puttenham, and we know not how many more. It would apparently be more easy to ascertain, by a process of induction, who he was not than who he is. Up to now we have read no affirmation that he is Burleigh or Raleigh,
