420
NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. iv. NOV. is, wii,
on
Recollections of a Long Life. By Lord Broughton
(John Cam Hobhouse). With Additional
Extracts from his Private Diaries. Edited by
his Daughter, Lady Dorchester. Vols. V. and
VI. With Portraits. (Murray.)
THE two volumes before us. complete the editor's
4 ' labour of filial love," and follow Lord Brough-
ton's career up to 22 April, 1852, when he was
invested with the Order of the Bath at Bucking-
ham Palace. He did not die till 1869, and, as
the Epitaph printed after the last page of text
records, " after a public career of success and
honour, found unbroken happiness in domestic
repose, which he adorned by his rare gifts of
scholarship and eloquence." The detailed dis-
cussions of politics in the pages before us are
occasionally tedious as dealing with matters long
since ventilated in a dozen histories, but we
cannot help admiring the part played by Hobhouse
alike in Parliament and in society. We are
inclined, indeed, to call him the finest gentleman
of his time, well qualified for that title by his
diverse gifts and the good use he made of them.
The vivid interest of his association with Byron is lacking for these later years, but we find Hob- house still eager about Byron's daughter and Byron's statue, and the best of friends ^ to the poet's memory. Yet he was no blind admirer, for he quotes Macaulay's remark that Byron " had but one hero in all his poems." Of that over- powering talker we get many characteristic glimpses. Once the diarist is able to correct him, for he, too, has a memory which can be appealed to with success. Hobhouse has, too, much of that intellectual cxiriosity which is more charac- teristic of the eighteenth century than our own, and his pages are enlivened with many curious notes, stories of jests, social changes, epigrams, &c., which were Well worth reproduction. Of persons he was a shrewd judge, and it is interest- ing to see his record of waxing and waning repu- tations. Pleasant throughout are the views of Queen Victoria and the Court, while the great .statesmen of the day, and even the course of Cabinet meetings, are fully sketched. Melbourne, Palmerston, and Wellington all three live on as potent voices when most of their contemporaries are dead. W T e see the rise of " Dizzy," who speaks of his real turn for classic literature, makes violently brilliant speeches, and takes leave of people in society with set phrases. Gladstone, too, appears, and puzzles people with a speech on the Maynooth Grant in 1845.
The infusion of humour and scholarship in the book is welcome. Sydney Smith appears in uproarious spirits, which doubtless commended the moderate wit of his sayings. Castlereagh's one jest is much better. A guest of Hobhouse once heard the late Duke of Cleveland say, when Virgil was mentioned, " Virgil ? Where did he live ? " There is a just estimate of Thomas Campbell's genius, but the views of men of letters are a little disappointing. Carlyle, seen only in a glimpse at Bohn's shop, is " a tall, thin man." Thackeray is " a most agreeable man, very tall and big, with a broken nose, and always wears spectacles." Of Tennyson's poetry the diarist J ' said something disparaging," and was shocked
to find that ' In Memoriam ' was dedicated to
the son of the Hallam with whom he was break-
fasting a Macaulay's.
The volumes, which present to us a figure of exceptional probity and brightness, are pro- duced in a style worthy of their contents.
MB. Pv. B. MCKERROW has begun a series of reprints of some minor Elizabethan and Jacobean tracts, printed at the Oxford University Press, and " published for the Editor " by Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson. The first two volumes are Weever' s Epigrammes in the oldest cut an'l newest fashion, 1599, and Greenes Newes both from Heauen and Hell, by B. B., 1593, with Greenes Funeralls, by B. B., 1594. , The object of these publications is to put within the reach of students works of great rarity which exist at most in only one or two copies, and are conse- quently inaccessible to all but a few readers. The series is thus a remarkable tribute to the enthusiasm of the learned concerning the period, and we congratulate Mr. McKerrow, who is, of course, its editor, alike on the form of the books and the annotation he has provided.
In themselves the authors thus honoured are of no great mark ; we doubt not, indeed, that there are better epigrammists than Weever unprinted to-day ; but Weever gives us a remark- able early reference to Shakespeare, who was further mentioned by Mr. McKerrow in a contribution to our columns concerning his book (ante, p. 384). There is a good deal of broad humour, with some insight into the swindling of the times, in the volumes before us. Two hundred and twenty-five copies only for sale have in each case been printed. ' Piers Plainnes seauen yeres Prentiship,' by H. C., 1595, and ' Bubbe and a Great Cast, and Bunne and a Great Cast,' by Thomas Freeman, 1614, are the next volumes proposed, but their issue depends on the support of at least 150 subscribers. The price (5s.) is moderate, and a pledge is given that it will not be reduced by " remaindering."
to (K0msp0ttfonts
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EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries ' "Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancerv Lane, E.G.
T. RATCLIFFE ("Points for men : pins for maids ") The 'N.E.D.' defines point, II. 5, as "a tagged lace or cord, of twisted yarn, silk, or leather, for attaching the hose to the doublet, lacing a bodice, and fastening various parts where buttons are now used." The quotations for this sense range from 1390 to Sir Walter Scott.
E. LEGA-WEEKES. Forwarded.
CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 169, col. 2, 1. 11, for "Sir John Hare " read St. John Hare.
