92
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. JULY 31, 1915.
all our hearts. Two papers Mrs. Villiers-Stuart's
Nationality and Gardening' and Mr. J. E. G.
de Montmorency's ' Chivalry and Civilisation '
are happily placed side by side, illustrating, as
they do, the effects on the West of the spirit of
the East. Each is charming, well-informed,
suggestive. And let no one suppose that there
is triviality in acknowledging that we owe to the
East the invention of the garden in the same
breath with which we pay tribute of gratitude
for Eastern inspiration in our chivalry. Mr.
Montmorency strikes a note which we earnestly
hope will be caught up and sounded again and
again through the coming months. Prof. W. A.
Phillips's ' British Imperialism and the Problems
of Peace ' is, again, sound and timely timely
in particular, because, amid the necessary criticism
of our ways and institutions which is setting in
more and more vigorously, it is wholesome for
the more conscientious and earnest-minded of
us to keep well in view what has been, what is,
our special national contribution to the making
of mankind. Mr. John Bailey writes about
Meredith's ' Odes on France,' surrounding them, we
rather think, with an admiration which exceeds
their due. We must mention the remaining
articles, for they deserve, at least, that much. Mr.
Edward Porritt writes clearly and instructively
on ' Canada in War-Time ' ; Mr. William Archer
has an illuminating study of Count yon Reventlow's
- Deutschland's auswartige Politik ' ; and there
are two unsigned papers, ' Italy and the European Conflict' (the author is an Italian) and 'The Law of Bastardy,' the latter of which, again, should command careful attention.
bitaarg.
JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY MURRAY.
THE news of Sir James Murray's death will hardly have come to our readers as a surprise. We had all known of his illness ; and the Prefatory Note to the instalment of the Great Dictionary which appeared this month indicated how far this had hindered him in the work he had so much at heart. His ambition was to finish the Dictionary "before he attained the age of eighty ; all his friends indeed, all English-speaking; people must regret that this was not vouchsafed to him. But, at least to the spectator, to end one's life with one's hand on the last section of one's task not separated from it even by suffering and weakness and the end of it well in sight, must seem a lot at least equally enviable. Nor have lovers of the English language waited for the completion of the Dic- tionary to discover its excellence, use its treasures, and give to it and its editor their due and high meed of praise.
James Murray was born near Hawick, and at the age of seventeen became an assistant master in the Grammar School of that town, where, three years later, he became head master of an academy and founded an Archaeological Society. Coming to London, he worked for fifteen years as a master at Mill Hill School, and made the acquaintance of scholars whose interest in philology both stimu- lated and gave scope to his own. In 1878 he laid before the Delegates of the Oxford University Press a plan for the working out of an English Dictionary, of which the idea had been proposed by Archbishop Trench. In April, 1879, he got to
work, and from that time, one might almost say
with truth, till the very day of his death nothing
but the most necessary rest and recreation inter-
rupted his labours.
It is well known how large is the number of students and readers who, in one way or another, have been and are working for the Great Dictionary, and how vast is the mass of material with which Sir James and his co-editors have had to deal. It is a pleasure to recollect that 'N. & Q.' has all along borne some share in the undertaking. Sir James applied to our readers frequently through our query columns ; and here and there, as the Dictionary shows, our correspondents have had the luck to preserve odd forms, or illustrate odd words. Now and again, as our readers know, we have printed articles from Sir James's pen the last being, curiously enough, his reminiscences of stories of Waterloo and the reception of the news of the victory in his native town, which appeared at p. 310 of Vol. VIII. of our present Series.
Sir James combined with the qualities which have made him famous as an English scholar, and with his remarkable gift for organization, great physical activity and a keen interest in out-of-door lite especially in gardening and in mountaineering. He will be missed not only in the Scriptorium which he "has made famous, but also in the streets of Oxford, where his venerable figure had come to seem as one of the institutions of the city.
H. DE BURGH ROLLINGS.
H. DE BURGH HOLLINGS, who died on 27 June at Brighton in his 68th year, was for some time one of the most brilliant leader-writers of the ill-fated newspaper The Hour, under Capt. Hamber. He enjoyed an exceptionally brilliant career at Oxford. Having obtained a scholarship at Corpus in 1864, and taken a first class in Moderations and in the Final Schools, he won a University Prize for the English Essay on ' The Office and Province of Literary Criticism,' and was elected a Fellow of Corpus.
Among the distinguished contemporaries of whom he was at one time the intimate friend were Mandell Creighton, afterwards Bishop of London, and the late Andrew Lang, and a^o the Poet Laureate and Mr. T. H. S. Escott. He was called to the Bar, though apparently he never had any intention of practising, preferring rather to devote himself to literature and journalism ; but a severe illness interfered with his plans and his career.
Hollings was one of the most distinguished scholars of his time, and contributed many good things to the columns of * N. & Q.' J. L.
THE FUTURE OF 'NOTES AND QUERIES.'
YET again we have to thank our correspondents for a number of most kind letters, suggestions, and promises of help. The prospect is good, and we hope to make a full statement cf the situation in the course of August.
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.
