420
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. r. MAY 20, me.
Index. But the details are exhaustively handled. Miss Lega-Weekes shows herself thoroughly at home with such different subjects as dedications to St. Martin (p. 16), the orientation of churches (p. 18), the derivation of strange words (p. 21), and the history of tobacco pipes (p. 100). The accounts of Annuellars and of St. Katherine's Chapel may be referred to as specimens of excellent as well as interesting investigation. But it is a reviewer's privilege to suggest and to criticize. There ought to be a table of the numerous MSS. of which use is made, with their localities. It is not usually considered necessary now to reproduce all their contractions and marks of contraction, as Miss Lega-Weekes does in making extracts from them. When a table of printed authorities is not supplied, such books as Lyndewode's 'Provinciale' (p. 93) and Butler's 'Lives' (p. 124) should have place, date, and edition added. On p. 39 we think that mensa is not "table," but altar-slab.
The Psalms of Penitence. A Metrical Rendering. By Seymour R. Coxe. (Chapman & Hall, 1s.)
This is an attractive and skilful version, which keeps all through at the level of eloquence, and rises now and again to real poetry, as may be seen in the second line of the following stanza from Ps. vi.:
Faint 'neath the galling burden of my grief,
I pour ray long repentance in Thine ears,
The suffering spirit's sole and sad relief
My night-long tears.
This form of stanza is kept throughout, and we are inclined to think it proves hardly adequate to convey the peculiar poignancy of ' Miserere ' and 'De Profundis ' being too flowing and facile, while it also tends to make all the seven psalms appear more nearly alike than they actually are. But we agree that some other reader may dismiss this criticism as mere cavilling. The turning anew ot phrases which in the English versions everybody has by heart is often happy thus, in Ps. xxxviii., we noticed :
Be Thou my Daysman, answer Thou for me ! in Ps. li. :
This heavenly breath of Thine take not away ; in Ps. cxxx. :
But no : to bring us to the fear of Thee Thou dost forgive.
It is always instructive and deeply interesting to ee anything which is at once sublime and very familiar in a new reflection, if this be in any measure a worthy one, and as such we would commend Canon Coxe's work to the attention of our readers.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Vol. III. January to March. (Manchester, the University Press ; London, Longmans, and Quaritch, Qd. net.)
WE are glad to know that the war has caused no decline in the number of readers at the Library, for, while there have been fewer male readers, ladies have so increased in numbers that addi- tional accommodation is required, and this will be afforded when the new building is completed. The appeal for books to found the new library at Louvain is renewed, and the hope is expressed that the library " will be richer and more glorious than its predecessor." An excellent beginning
has been made, but much more remains to be done
if the work of replacement is to be entirely suc-
cessful.
The additions to the Library during the past year number 3,060 volumes. The MSS. in- clude ' The Original Record of the Royal Receipts and Expenses in Ireland for the Year of 20 James I.,' 1622, in 4 vols., and a volume of the fifteenth- century ' Cartulary of Fountains Abbey,' which was lost sight of for a long time, and was unknown to Dugdale. Dodsworth, and the later editors of the ' Monasticon Anglicanum.' Dr. Vaughan, one of the governors of the Library, is congratulated upon the completion of his laborious work, ' The Political Writings of Rousseau.' The Bulletin also includes Dr. Rendel Harris's lecture, ' The Origin of the Cult of Apollo,' and that by Dr. Elliot Smith on ' The Influence of Ancient Egyp- tian Civilization.'
WE have received the following from the Secre-
tary of the Society of Genealogists of London :
" The Society of Genealogists of London (5 Blooms-
bury Square) has decided to compile a register of
genealogical queries, and will be glad to receive
details of such problems.
" Those who wish it will be placed in com- munication with genealogists interested in the same family."
The Athenaeum now appearing monthly, arrange- ments have been made whereby advertisements of posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to publish weekly, may appear in the intervening weeks in 'N. & Q.'
t0
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.
CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded to other contributors should put on the top left- hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified.
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 to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."
Miss M. A. AUTY, MR. HORACE BLEACKLEY, LENTON HALL, MRS. SWINNERTON HUGHES, and MR. W. H. PEET. Forwarded.
A CHURCH BELL AT FARNHAM IN DORSET (ante, p. 389). MR. E. S. DODGSON writes : " The Oxford Chronicle of May 5, 1916, contains the revised reading of this bell which I received on May 1 from
Mr. E. C. Moore It is -f- Ora mente pia. He
reads on the other bell ' Wm Tozier 1732 Mr Club- terbook.' "
