12 s. in. MAY, i9i7.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
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Imperial problems, form the topics of those that
remain. It seems superfluous to remark that all
deserve careful consideration.
THE principal literary paper in The Fortnightly for this month is Mr. Arthur Symons's ' Algernon Charles Swinburne.' It includes two or three unpublished letters of some interest, several epigrams, choice sentences, scenes and anecdotes, and is altogether dreamy and daring, solemn and full of colour, rather like the singing of some one who has an unusually good voice except that it has no middle register. Mr. Edward Clodd has arved an entertaining article out of BoswelTs
- Johnson ' on the relations between the great
Doctor and Lord Monboddo concluding with a reproduction, in cxtenso, of Lord Neaves's in- genious verses, ' The Memory of Monboddo.' To these we may add as of historical or academic s well as " actual " interest Mr. Sidney Low's ' The Passing of the Superman.' We should dis- pute what he says and what he infers in about three sentences out of five, but, as usual, we find him very stimulating and suggestive.
THE May Nineteenth Centura is a weighty number, dealing with most of the topics occupying our minds to-day. As in the April number, there are but two papers which are not concerned with the crisis. One is Mr. W. S. Lilly's study of Socrates, ' The Wisest of the Greeks.' Socrates is regarded chiefly not solely from Xenophon's point of view. This is a very refreshing and sympathetic piece of work, which, without dis- covering to us anything novel, has the charm attaching to familiar things when told over again as it were direct from the source. The second paper in question, entitled ' A Torch-Bearer,' by Constance Elizabeth Maud, is a sketch of the late Archdeacon Wilberforce. It begins with an odd and not very happy simile, but it includes some fine anecdotes and skilful characterization.
THE most important article in the new Cornhill is Prof. Gaston Broche's ' France and Britain : their Common Memories ' ; next to it we should put Mr. Freeman's ' The British Red Cross in Italy,' and ' Fragments from the German East,' by " A Soldier's Wife." Sir Henry Lucy's ' Old Ways at Westminster ' is worth having. There is also a pleasant dog story called ' L'ile Nance,' by Rowland Cragg.
JOTTINGS FROM CATALOGUES.
MESSRS. MAGGS'S new Catalogue (Xo. 355) deals "with Topography, Travel, and Family History. It runs to nearly 1,650 entries, and maybe said to describe an equal number of really good things of various character and interest. The most striking
- nd expensive items it contains are two MS.
books which belonged to Lord Macartney during liis Governorship of the Cape Colony ; the one T)eing his official Letter-Book from May, 1707, to November, 1798 a large folio of 409 pp., con- taining careful copies of nearly 750 letters, and to be had for 811. 10s. : and the other, of which the price is 125?., being his official Diary for the same period. Another set of Macartney Letter- Books, for the years 1777, 1778, and 1779, when lie was at Grenada, collected in four quarto "volumes, is offered for 211. We noticed a copy of Breydenbach the fourth edition in French,
printed in Gothic letter at Paris in 1522, 4:21. ;
and under ' Botany,' a heading which comprises
some attractive old books, a ' Hortus siccus ' of
nearly 2.000 specimens, in three large folio
volumes, the work of Antonio Gaevmans (1669-71),
307. Braun and Hogenbergi's ' Civitates Orbis
Terrarum ' 6 vols., folio, in 3 were put together
from 1572 to 1618, and contain over 350 double
plate "engravings. This is said to be the earliest
general collection of views, 217. A good copy
with the arms emblazoned in colour of the first
edition of Dallaway and Cartwright's ' Western
Division of Sussex ' (it will be remembered that a
great part of the edition was destroyed by a fire
at the printing office) is worth noting, 457. There
are numerous works some sumptuous, some
merely useful on heraldry , and among the books
on travel we found those describing the East
particularly enticing.
Mr. John Grant of Edinburgh describes in his Spring Catalogue a collection of works on Religion, Folk- Lore, Anthropology, Philosophy, and other subjects more or less connected w r ith these. We will mention half-a-dozen or so, as specimens of what may be of Use to a student forming a library. There are three volumes of Glanvill : the ' Scepsis Scientifica ' (1665), the ' Essays on. . . .Philosophy and Religion ' (1676), and a collection of miscellaneous pieces, 37. 13s. 6d.; five volumes (1844-57) of the Irish Archaeological Society's Publications, 37. 12s. 6d. ; seven volumes of Migne's ' Patrologia,' including the ' Liturgia Mozarabica,' the ' Dictionnaire des L^gendes,' the ' Dictionnaire des Apocryphes,' and the ' Diction- naire Hagiographique,' 27. 7s. Qd. : and twelve volumes of the " Grimm Library " (1904), 47. We also marked a set of the Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS., 171 vols., offered for fifteen guineas, and a copy of Loddiges's Botanical Cabinet' (1818-33), which costs 287. 10s.
WILLIAM MERCER.
OCR readers and those especially who are in- terested in Italy will learn with regret the death of our old and valued correspondent, Mr. William Mercer, which took place on the 14th of March last. He had been for some time in failing health, and died in his 83rd year. Born at Gainsborough, he spent twenty of the best years of his life in Italy, where he had an adventure the " Castella- mare Incident " which aroused considerable interest. He was much engaged in literary journalism, and certainly bore his part in the interpretation of Italy and her treasures to England. We cannot do better than give as they stand the words of an intimate friend of his, written expressly for ' X. & Q. : :
" I met Mr. Mercer twenty-five years ago, soon after his return from Italy, and our relations became and remained intimate up till his death. Trained for business, he had to go. abroad for reasons of health, and lived many years in Italy. Italy was his lifelong subject of interest, especially the history of Italian art and antiquities. He wrote a great deal on these subjects in The Athenceum and Academy. He had a great admiration of both journals, and always spoke with high regard of
