-20
NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. v. JAK. 6, 1912.
THE New Year's number of The Cornhill bogin
with some new verses by Thackeray, a festiv
laudation of wine suitable to the season, whic
was written in 1831. Sir Algernon West has
pleasant article in praise of ' Lord James o
Hereford,' who possessed the spirits of a boy an
- an overflowing vitality and generosity. Mrs
Arthur Bell has translated from the French o M. Bpurget ' A Christmas Eve under the Terror a poignant story of birth in the midst of th '.terrors of death. Sir H. W. Lucy supplies " mor passages by the way ' ' for his ' Sixty Years i the Wilderness,' concerning Fleet Street in th seventies, a theine also dealt with by Mr. Escot in The Fortnightly this month. Sir Henry con -victs Disraeli in ' Sybil ' of gross plagiarism fron The Sporting Magazine in a description of th Derby, and says that Viscountess Beaconsfielt was very unpopular at High Wycombe on accoun of her stinginess. ' Laura and Trudi ' is a prettj story bv Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, while ' In a Truan School, by Miss Dorothy Horace-Smith, is both entertaining and instructive. With the answers to questions on the Falstaff Cycle the literarj competitions are ended for the present.
IN The Fortnightly Mr. Sidney Low opens wit] .an article on 'The Foreign Office Autocracy and suggests a Foreign Affairs committee. He points out that the Declaration of Delhi has been made for good or evil without the consent o parliament. There are two good articles on .the Insurance Act by " Auditor Tantum " and Mr. T. A. Ingram; and Mr. Sydney Brooks has one of his well-considered papers on ' England Germany, and Common Sense.' Mr. Henry Baerlem has a striking little sketch of a Mexican ploughman ' In a Field,' and "Variag" continues .to be interesting in his views of Russian intrigue m A Leader.'
, Our keenest attention is, however, attracted oy Literature and Journalism,' by Mr. T. H S Escott, and ' England's Taste in Literature,' by Mr. Raymond Blathwayt. Mr. Escott writes brightly, as usual, dealing with Dickens as a maker of journalists and essayists, and a master who laid stress on study in the British Museum. Sala (now largely forgotten), W. J. Prowse, trrenville Murray, and Edmund Yates are hit r us m a few lines; and the importance of hornton Hunt as an editor demanding educa- 18 T? a f ^u Mr " Escott is concerned to A* , the , llteral T type of journalist, u the m > tur . al Product of the forces and then [m Sala's day] operating with newspaper readers and writers, developed in all ned a temper and taste that have now Iisappeared To judge from present signs, the?
aHowl^ fc i he le f s V ikely to re ^." We cannot low ourselves to be so pessimistic, but the out- >ok is certainly not promising. Mr Blathwayt has got data for his inquiry from lending libraries great bookshops, and more ,than one distinguished author and publisher! He deals largely with the attitude of Society is obviously at present taken with various .embodiments of mysticism and philosophy But when he credits Society with freedom from meaningless little conventions," he might add that it is tied and hampered by meaningless little catchwords Fashion in literature is not per-
fofk e Vif. ,Tf gh v, n0t 1 ne f ligible ' Are Society .folk entitled to be called "the Athenians of
modern England" ? A scholar will hardly think
they deserve the compliment. Women read
sociology more than men, according to this
observer. " Meredith is read almost exclusively
y 1 1 Umver sity man. Scott and Dickens are read by children and the very old." Verdicts such as these make us doubt, not the soundness
f Mr. Blathwayt's conclusions on the evidence, but the untrustworthy character of the evidence itself. Our own experience of readers, which goes back some years, directly contradicts the first assertion at least.
It is said that a revival in history may be looked for in the near future, but surely the revival has come already. Otherwise, why do the publishers encourage so much rewriting, by smart pens of all sorts, concerning kings, queens, literary characters in fact, any one of note round whom a book can be built up ?
Miss LUCY B. LOVEDAY is collecting materials
with a view to publishing a life of Miss C. M.
- anshawe. She would be very grateful if any
of the readers of ' N. & Q.' could supply her with any information, or would entrust any papers or letters to her care. She would return all MSS. sent to her at as early a date as possible. She begs that all information and papers be sent direct to her at Williamscote, Banbury
'THE BOOK-LOVERS' ANTHOLOGY,' edited, with notes, by Mr R. M. Leonard, will be issued imme- diately by Mr. Frowde. It consists of passages m poetry and prose relating to books in all their aspects, libraries, and reading, grouped according to the subject ; and some 250 authors in all are represented. The Anthology will appear in t Oxford Editions of Standard Authors.
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