320
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. OCT. 17, wi*.
Te-invented or imitated from him in The Academy
-some twenty years ago ; and " sphalmatas,"
Evelyn's erudite error, to describe an error or slip
in writing; and " spinee " (" Nym the flowrys
of the haw thorn clene gaderyd and bray hem al
to dust "), " a dish or confection " in the four-
-teenth and fifteenth centuries flavoured with
liawthorn flowers.
Oxford Garlands, Id. net each. (Milford.)
WE have on our table three of these delightful little volumes, so portable that you could place the three in a coat-pocket. One is a collection of .Sonnets, and this, like the other volumes, opens with an index of authors with dates ; they range from the sixteenth to the present century. Words- worth stands first as to number, ten of his sonnets being given. Milton comes next with seven, Shakespeare and Keats being represented by six each.
The selection of Love Poems also extends over five centuries, and includes some old favourites; but in many cases Mr. R. M. Leonard, the expert compiler of the series, leads us to paths unknown.
The third volume is, appropriately enough, Patriotic Poems. Mr. Leonard states that "when this collection was made the war cloud had not burst over Europe, but none the less the martial note is the most insistent in the following pages, -which tell of old, unhappy, far-off things, when we were not on good terms with 'that sweet enemy, France.'" "Since the War Lord's breath ' first kindled the dead coals of war,' many a poet has been inspired to prove, if it may be, that
The song that nerves a nation's heart
Is in itself a deed ;
but in this volume will be found little that has not stood the test of time or criticism, and to some future anthologist must be allotted the task of separating the wheat from the chaff of topical verse. The great names of the past are now on all men's lips, and their memories are kept green in these pages. But there is many an unnamed hero who has died or lived for his country now or soon to be forgotten, and many a one doomed shortly to lie in an obscure grave, not unhonoured, yet unsung. To these might be applied Pope's echo of a poet greater than him- self, They had no poet, and they died."
At the feet of such men and women, a noble army, Mr. Leonard lays this garland. This volume, like the others, contains many old favourites, but some of the poems are new to us. Mr. Leonard might see nis way to add Gerald Massey's name to the index of authors represented. There is his poem on the Battle of the Alma, " Our old War-banners on the wind," which formed part of his 'Craigcrook Castle,' reviewed in The Athenceum of the 25th of October, 1856, and ' Sir Robert's Sailor Son,' which first appeared in The Athenceum of the 12th of June, 1858. The subject of the latter was Sir William Peel, who was wounded during the second relief of Lucknow, and died on 27 April, 1858. Both of these, we think, Mr. Leonard would find to be worthy of a place in a new edition of this collection of ' Patriotic Poems.'
We must not forget to mention that, in addition to an index of first lines, there are valuable notes to each volume.
CaJ.endar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other
Analogous Documents. Vol. VIII. Edward III.
(Stationery Office.)
THIS volume covers the period from the tenth to the twentieth year of Edward III.'s reign. It was prepared by Mr. J. E. E. Sharp and Mr. E. G. Atkinson, the Index being the work of Mr. J. J. O'Reilly. It includes a large number of the lesser families in whom from time to time correspondents of ' N. & Q.' have been interested, and inquisitions taken of the possessions of nearly a score of the greater landholders of the kingdom among them Ormonde, De Badlesmere, Bohun, Courtney of Devon, St. John, De Ros, and Scrope. There is an index of subjects as well as of names, and a glance at it will show that the papers illustrate a tolerable number of feudal customs. The lighter and more directly human element introduced by the proofs of age comes in fairly frequently, though not perhaps diversified by so many incidents as may be found in some of the other Calendars of these Inquisitions.
The Antiquary: October. (Elliot Stock, 6d.)
As was to be expected, the first note refers to " the barbaric and wanton destruction of Louvain," and quotations are given from Sir Arthur Evans s letter which appeared in The Times of the 1st of September. Writing as President of the Society of Antiquaries, he " voiced the horror and pro- found indignation ...... at the Prussian holocaust of
Lou vain." " The holocaust should have the effect of electrifying all the more intellectual elements of our country with a new vigour of determination to overthrow the ruthless regime of blood and iron imposed by Prussian arrogance on twentieth- century Europe."
Mr. R. Coltman Clephan writes on ' Spurious Objects of Egyptian Antiquity as illustrated by a Few Specimens made recently at Gurnah and Luxor.' In recent years there has been greater activity in the trade, and he suggests that some- thing should be done to check this objectionable traffic. Another article is on ' Pictures from Italian Peasant Life in the Middle Ages,' by Federico Hermauin, translated by Mary Gurney. Dr. Cox reviews Mr. Balch's ' Wookey Hole : its Caves and Cave Dwellers,' recently published by the Oxford University Press. Mr. Druce concludes his ' Notes on Birds in Mediaeval Church Architecture.' Mr. John Knowles, in continuing his contribution on ' Glass- Painting in Mediaeval Times,' gives full details of the various processes, and shows him- self to be a thorough expert. Mr. W. H. Jacob in ' Side-Lights on Winchester in the Reign of Henry VII. (1495-6) ' supplies from the City Chamberlain's Accounts information as to prices during that period.
to
WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the value of old books and other objects or as to the means of disposing of them.
CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be for- warded to other contributors should put on the top left-hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified.
