us. ix. APRIL 25, 10U.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
339
it seems to go back only some way into the nineties.
"Sheriff" is excellently treated. Connected
with it are two rare words of considerable
interest : " Sheriffs tooth," the name for an annual
impost levied by the sheriff on each bovate of
land; and " sheriffess," which seems only to occur
in the cases of Anne and Elizabeth Clifford. Under
" shield " the old story " with thy shield or on thy
shield " is not mentioned. Nor does the use of the
shield implied in the second alternative find a
place here. Under "shingle" ( = tile, L. scindula)
the first example is the pretty sentence from
'Vices and Virtues': " De faste hope is rof
and wrikfi alle Se hire bieS beneSen mid Se scincles of holie J>ohtes."
It is curious, when one considers it, that the " shilling " of twelve pence should have been money of account since the Norman Conquest, while the silver shilling was first coined only in 1503. The Athenceum (Nov., 1885) supplies the first instance of " shilling dreadful," stating there that " Mr. R. L. Stevenson is writing another." We must confess that we had not realized that "shimmer" as a noun goes no further back than Scott, "shimmer "as a verb being found in the twelfth century. "Ship "and all its derivatives are good reading ; but in " ship-money " is an instance of the curious preference of the compilers for instances in second-hand accounts. Pryrme is the earliest author quoted for this ancient tax. There is a quotation from The Nautical Magazine, 1839, "Neither shipshape nor Bristol fashion." What is "Bristol fashion"? How far back to ask another question does the custom go of flinging an old shoe for good luck at a wedding? Here the sixteenth century gives the first example. '* Shoot" is one of the finest of these articles, and " short " is another ; but the latter includes a rather questionable definition. "Short story," says the Dictionary, is " a prose work of fiction, differing from a novel by being shorter and less elaborate." Alas for those literary critics who have so laboured to convince us all that this is just precisely what the true " short story " is not ! In 1847 De Quincey censured "shortcoming" as a Scotticism. It had already, however, been adopted by Gladstone and Dickens, and we may be glad De Quincey's opinion did not prevail. We all knew that General Shrap- nel's name gave us that for the projectile which he invented, but it may not be generally known that it was officially adopted " in accordance with the Report of a Select Committee at Woolwich, dated 1852, for the former name 'spherical case shot.'" Under "shrive" we are given a not specially
happy phrase of Mr. Robert Bridges's : "A tomb:
Such as to look on shrives The heart of half its care." Plainly he chose to ignore the fact that the metaphor in " shrive " is not the same as that in " absolvo," and that a word which strictly means to prescribe (penance) is strangely out of place in this connexion.
interesting points, and several articles "shot," for
example, "shire" ' ; shut," and " shrewd "which
seemed, as we went through them, to call for special
remark ; but we have not space for more than to
draw the attention of our readers to the fact that
within the covers of this section we are given also
Mr. Bradley 's Preface to the whole of Vol. VIII.,
who in thanking those who have collaborated with
him since the words in S were begun has to mention
no fewer than six who are no longer living.
The Millers of Haddington, Dunbar, and Dunferm-
line. By W. J. Couper. (T. Fisher Unwin,
8s. Gd. net.)
THIS is a valuable contribution to the history of booksellers, " afield," as the author says, " practi- cally un worked," for "literature devoted to the work of booksellers is almost non-existent." We have the biography, recently published, of William. Creech, the Edinburgh bookseller, " but the only firm that has been made the subject of even a respectable magazine article is that of the Morri- sons of Perth, who, it should be noted, were also printers and publishers." Publishers have been dealt with more liberally, and well-known memoirs include the Blackwoods, the John Murrays, and a few others ; but we should like to see a series of small volumes uniform with that delightful little book ' Daniel Macmillan,' by Tom Hughes. Such a series ought to be very popular.
The present volume throws light on the past book trade of Scotland, and shows the methods by which publications reached the various country districts. None took a greater part in this work of providing and popularizing literature among the common people than the Millers of Dunbar, and we are grateful to Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, who carries on the publishing tradition of the Miller family, as well as to the author, for this book.
George Miller must have been a man of san- guine temperament, for few towns in Scotland at the close of the eighteenth century seemed less fitted than the town he chose Dunbar for carrying on an extensive trade in books. There,, however, George Miller " succeeded in building up a trade that for a time rivalled some of the largest businesses in the capital " ; yet the population was only 3,700, and the number of persons living within a radius of ten miles did not exceed 8,000. Although he started without capital, at the end of twenty -five years the value of his stock exceeded 10,OOOZ.
When Miller started printing in 1795, he had to be his own compositor and pressman ; but his business so progressed that in 1801 he purchased a second press, and was able to print and publish ' Robin- son Crusoe,' a duodecimo of 238 pages. The printing business continued to increase, and he removed it to Haddington in 1804. In 1813 Miller ventured on the difficult path of journalism, and the first number of The Cheap Magazine appeared on the 14th of January, the editor's birthday. It was a monthly duodecimo of forty-eight pages, and carried the sub-title ' Poor Man's Fireside Companion ' on the title-page. Its purpose was stated to be the " prevention of crimes," and " to insure the peace, comfort, and security of society," as well as to give to young and thoughtful minds " a taste for reading subjects of real utility." It was a great success from the first. Miller was its original and sole proprietor, editor, printer, and publisher, and the author of several of its con- tents. Robert Chambers has done ample justice to the public service rendered by the little maga- zine. Misfortunes over which he had no control came to Miller, and he had the sorrow of being even obliged to part with his own private library. When over 60 he published his ' Latter Struggles,' which has been described as a " singular piece of autobiography." " It shows the lineaments of a man ambitious, resourceful, and upright, but for many years dogged by persistent misfortune." He died on the 26th of July, 1835, in his 64th
