180
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. FEB. 20, iwe.
forgotten. The world no longer knows Anna
Matilda's lines
A feast so dear to polished taste As that thy lyre correctly flings, and other insufferable ineptitudes. Still we are glad to have a brief dissection of the futility of the Della-Cruscans, with a reference to A. T. Kent's account in his delightful ' Otia.' This is one of a host of instances in which Dr. Saintsbury's over- flowing foot-notes are much to the point. In him and Mr. Austin Dobson the eighteenth century has champions unequalled in their several ways. The w'orld, perhaps, in the brief moments not devoted to its trivial curiosities and restless haste, may discover that we owe to these Augustans not only some of the solid conveniences of the Philistine such as the sandwich and the umbrella but also the initiation of much that is indis- pensable to the cultivated mind to-day. The twentieth century has its faults, which are now by way of being scrutinized more closely than they were. One of the worst of them is the self- sufficiency which goes with ignorance of its debt to the past.
CURIOSITIES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
IT would not be difficult to fill the whole of the space at our disposal with an account of the seventeenth-century works which occur in the Catalogue No. 300 of Mr. Francis Edwards, devoted to criminology, folk-lore, the occult sciences, old medical books, and old cookery books. We can mention only a few items, but the Catalogue as a whole may be recommended to the attention of the curious. Here are, under ' Criminology,' a copy of ' The Catterpillars of this Nation 'Anatomized in a Brief yet Notable Discovery of House-breakers....' (1659, 51.) ; a ' Histoire Generale des Larrons ' (Rouen, 1645, 2L 2s.) ; a complete and good copy of Head's ' The English Rogue Described' (1666-'71-'74-'80, the four parts bound in two small 8vo volumes, 111. 10s.) ; and, in black-letter, the ' Success of Swaggering, Swearing, Dicing. . . .described in the
Life and Downfall of Peter Lambert ' (1610,
31. 10s.). The next section contains a description of a good copy of the ' Anthropometamorphosis ' of John Bulwer (1653, 101.). Under ' Old Medical Books ' of which seventeenth-century examples are numerous we noticed two MS. books of recipes, offered at 4?. and 5Z. respectively ; a copy of the works of Ambrose Parey, translated from the Latin (1634, 101.) ; and the first English treatise on Midwifery, the work of Thomas Raynalde, entitled ' The Byrth of Mankinde,' mostly black-letter (1613, 51.). Sir Hugh Plat's ' Delightes for Ladies ' (1609, 61. 15s.) and ' The Queen's Closet Opened,' a first edition in con- temporary calf, but lacking the portrait of Henrietta Maria (1655, 4Z.), may be mentioned from among the cookery books.
Messrs. Maggs's new Catalogue (No. 343) of Autograph Letters and MSS. describes a score or somewhat more of seventeenth-century items, among them two autograph letters of Charles II. one to the Marquis of Argyle from Breda in 1650 (21Z.) ; and the other, from London in 1673, written in French to the Comte d'Estrees (221. 10s.). Another most interesting Stuart item is a letter,
in French, from Mary of Modena to the Mother
Superior of Chaillot, at St. Cyr (c. 1690, 10Z. 10s.).
One of the best items in the Catalogue, from the
historical point of view, is the letter in which
Sir John Meldrum, acting as Parliamentary
general, on Oct. 1, 1644, demanded the surrender
of Liverpool, which is here offered for 121. ICs. ;
and we may also mention a signature, accom-
panied by a note of four lines in his handwriting,
of Sir Edward Coke, which appears upon a
petition to him of one William Bull of Kelling
the note referring the petition to the cognizance' of Sir Nathaniel Bacon (1606, 101. 10s.).
Another catalogue which students of the seventeenth century will find full of gcod matter is the new one (Nc. 106) of the books of Mr. P. M. Barnard of Tunbridge Wells. Several such items appear on almost every page ; and , for want of space, we restrict ourselves to mentioning one or two of foreign interest. There are five letters by Martin W r escombe, Consul at padiz, to the English Ambassador at Madrid, Sir Richard Fanshawe, concerning the movements of the Dutch and English fleets (1665 aifd 1666. 5Z.) ; a letter, sent by the hand of Hugo Grotius, Swedish Ambassador in Paris, of Turenne to Christina of Sweden (1645, 21. 2s.) ; three documents relating to the Scotch Guards in France, of which the best is a petition signed " Crafurd Lindesey " to Anne of Austria, from the " Committ5 des Estats du Parlement d'Escosse," asking that the Scotch Guards in France may serve on the same footing with the French and Swiss Guards (1648, 21. 2s.) ; and a plan of the siege of Rheinberg, by Prince Maurice of Nassau, which has numerous MS. notes adding several good details (1601, 31. 10s.). A copy of Gustavus Adolphus's ' Swedish Discipline,' &c., complete with the copper plate
of the battle of Leipsic, printed in London, 1632
the battle-piece " here imitated by Michaell Droshaut, London, 1632 " may also be men- tioned (21. 10s.).
[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]
to <K0msp0ntottis.
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EDITORIAL communications should be addressed
to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries ' "Adver-
tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub-
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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 put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages tc which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."
G. W. E. R. Forwarded to J. T. F.
MR. ROLAND AUSTIN (" Duncan's Horses"). See Macbeth,' II. iv. 18ff.
