Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/120

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JNOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.xn.AuG.7,i9i5.


\ THE August Nineteenth Century has three articles which describe scenes at different parts of the Front. Like, all such descriptions, these put to rout any attempt at criticism, yet the reader becomes aware that Prof. Morgan's ' Leaves from a^- Field Note-Book ' are somewhat unusually telling, as well as definitely and fully informative ; and that Miss Lena Ashwell's account of the experiences of the group of artistes who went out last Winter to bring music to the camps and hospitals behind the trenches has a certain charm l>eyond the sheer interest of the subject-matter. One touch some of our readers may note with interest : Miss Ashwell relates how the men at the forage camp, after singing ' Auld Lang Syne ' as a farewell to the troupe, " created a quaint sensation when they began to sing ' Here we come

gathering nuts and may.' " It was soon dis-

covered that they had turned the words into "" Here we are gathering oats and hay " ! Mr. 'Charles Towers, under the title of ' Scenes from the Drama of Italian Intervention,' sketches very effectively with perhaps a thought too much of " artistry " people and events to be seen at Milan last midsummer. Lord Killanin brings to

an end his discussion of the Irish temperament

pages these of no little penetration which should l>e well weighed by the literary no less than by the political friends of Ireland. Mr. Simpson has a good paper on recent German scholarship in the field of Higher Criticism, largely concerned with "Harnack's admission of the trustworthiness, or, as he would say, comparative trustworthiness, of 'St. Luke. The first place in the number is given of Dr. Shadwell's ' The Industrial Factor in the War.' It is a re"sum6 of what most of us have by now gathered from the daily papers, but it is lucidly and vigorously done, and, though the matter is one which we do not pretend to deal with in these columns, we cannot refrain from expressing the earnest hope that it will be widely read and laid to heart.

FRIENDS of The Cornhill who have looked forward to August for another paper ' Between the Lines ' from Mr. Boyd Cable will find reason to thank .and congratulate both author and editor for the lively and able description of a sapper's work at the front. Mr. Boyd Cable's work shows a quick eye, a steady and full imagination, and a cunning hand, in addition to the necessary preliminary qualification of a knowledge of what he is talking about. Dr. Fitchett, in ' A Great Soldier on his Battles,' deals with Wellington's famous and inadequate Waterloo dispatch, compared with the account the Duke gave of the victory to Creevey in conversation on the following day. Sir Edward Clarke sets out the long and exceed- ingly complicated " detective case," tried in October, 1877, in which he successfully defended George Clarke, senior officer in the Detective Department at Scotland Yard, from the charge of being concerned with other detectives in a con- spiracy to defeat the ends of justice. Sir Edward, at the end of this article, naively and rather amusingly confides to his readers the exact pecuniary advan- tage which his conduct of this defence and his share in the Penge case of the same year brought to him. Mr. Warre Cornish's sketch of Edith Sichel, though its general effect is somewhat blurred, rewards a careful reading by a number of delicate observations expressed in many cases with epigrammatic force. Mr. Lyndhurst Duke


describes impressively an adventure with lions in Uganda ; and the ' Spirit of the War 'as evinced at Eton and at Harrow is illustrated by Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Warner respectively.

ALTHOUGH the times could hardly be less favourable for the pursuit of the study of art, The Burlington Magazine is able nevertheless to maintain a fair average of forty pages of matter together with its usual excellent standard of illustrations. The number for August opens with a reproduction of ' The Tow-path ' by W. Maris, with a short and somewhat satirical account of it by Mr. Walter Sickert. The beautiful altar of Tuan Fang of the Sui dynasty, which was repro- duced in June of last year, is again presented by Mr. Hamilton Bell, together with some further figures which are reputed to be portions of the original. Whether the central figure is an Amida or a Sakyamuni is a matter discussed at some length, and concerning which considerable doubt seems to exist. Mr. C. J. Holmes reproduces some portraits of the composers Arne and Pur- cell, the most interesting being the drawing of the latter in the British Museum attributed to Kneller, which shows a face of great sensitive- ness and charm. Mr. Basil Oliver supplies an article on ' Table Designs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,' with some interesting photographs ; and Mr. Lionel Cust discusses French painting in the nineteenth century. In view of the present exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Mr. B. Boss's criticism of Mestrovic .may prove to be the matter of greatest interest in this number. He does not consider this sculptor to show any exclusively Serbian charac- teristics in his art, but thinks he is eclectic rather, and quite as much European (German, French, or Austrian) in his tradition. Two large repro- ductions accompany the article the wood relief ' The Deposition from the Cross ' and the plaster portrait model of ' The Sculptor's Mother.'


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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.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to

Eut m parentheses, immediately after the exact eading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."

H. ST. J. S Forwarded.

ST. S WIT] UN. Many thanks for Note offered on "Old Mother Hubbard." The rime has, however, often been discussed in ' N. & Q.' The last two contributions, are at 10 S. x.27, 116 the latter being from the per of the late Col. Prideaux.