12 S. III. JT-LY, 1917.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
373
0tt
Original Records of Early Nonconformity under Persecution and Indulgence. Transcribed and edited by G. Lyon Turner. 2 vols. (Fisher Unwin, II. 5s. net.)
A DISPASSIONATE view of the religious history of the seventeenth century is not, even at this distance of time, easy to come by. Perhaps only a slightly inhuman person could perfectly attain to it ; for the matters in dispute even apart from religion concern men's deepest interests, and how in such matters can anybody help a bias to one side or the other ? For this purpose the masses of interpreta- tive and narrative writing concerning them are even where not in need of severe revision on the whole less serviceable than the dry records of official censuses or registers, and students should be proportionately grateful to Prof. Lyon Turner for having set before them these two series of important documents, the one relating to the years 1665, 1669, and 1676, and the other to 1672, during which licences to preach and hold meetings were issued to Noncon- formists under the Declaration of Indulgence.
The first series consists of the Episcopal Returns, for the three years above mentioned, of the conventicles discovered in the several dioceses. They have been extracted from vol. 639 (Tenison MSS.) in Lambeth Palace Library, and printed with meticulous care. The names of the heads and teachers, the places of meeting, the numbers, quality, and, in some cases, the names of the sectaries, are noted. A systematic study of these pages would give a clear idea of the proportion of Nonconformists to the ad- herents of the Church throughout the different parts of England. InChalfont St. Giles are noted four conventicles, of which the third is of Atheists. No names or further particulars are given, and it would be interesting to know what these persons were, and what reasons could be given for so describing them. Mrs. Dorothy Cromwell, " wife to Richard Cromwell, the late Usurper," is entered as having a conventicle of " supposed Presbyterians " in her house at Hursley. The numbers were forty-nine, twenty-four being parishioners and the rest strangers. The second series of documents has been tran- scribed from papers and entry books for the year of Indulgence preserved in the Public Record Office. We have here licences, petitions for licences, and correspondence on different questions relating to these.
The second volume provides the means of coming at what one wants in the first. It contains a Classified Summary which is one of .the most ingenious and laborious pieces of work that we have recently come across. By means of it, and having, with the help of the Indexes, mastered the methods explained in the preface, it is possible to collect all the information scattered through vol. i., whether relating to a particular person, a particular place, or a par- .ticular " perswasion."
Prof. Turner tells us that he has the material for what would have been an Introduction to the -present work if the circumstances of the time had allowed of its being published. We join i n his hope that ere long this may be given to his readers.
BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.
MESSRS. MAGGS send us two more of their elabor- ate catalogues No. 356, ' Rare Books and Manuscripts,' and No. 357, ' Engravings, Etchings, and Drawings.' Readers of Mr. Clark Northup's article, in the last two numbers of ' N. & Q.,' on Gray's books and MSS. will be interested in the frontispiece to No. 356, which is a facsimile of the title-page of the first issue of the first edition of Gray's ' Elegy ' ; but the book itself will be beyond the means of most of them, the price being 55(U. Other items appealing to wealthy col- lectors are a set of first editions of works by members of the Bronte family (24 vols., 1751.) ; 54 vols. of first editions of R. L. Stevenson (2751.) ; and Hawkins's ' Life of Kean,' extended by extra illustrations from 2 vols. to 8 vols. (2501.). The last-named entry furnishes a good example of the interest of Messrs. Maggs's cata- logues to the ordinary book-lover, as eight columns are devoted to a list of the illustrations, views, playbills, &c., included in this remarkable collection. Other examples are furnished by extracts under Byron (p. 29), the sketch of Peter Heywood's remarkable career (p. 52), and the collection of pamphlets, proclamations, &c., relating to the introduction of penny postage (p. 79, 351.).
The contents of No. 357 are much less ex- pensive. It is true that 100 guineas is the price of a mezzotint of Napoleon by J. R. Smith after Appiani ; but, on the other hand, a vignette of Benjamin Franklin by James Newton can be had for 15s., a half-length of Corneille by J. Chapman for 10s. 6d., and an oval portrait of Turgot by Vangelisty for 7s. Qd. The plates in the cata- logue illustrate incidentally the manners and fashions of the time. Thus in the section devoted to Sport we see William Innes at Blackheath in 1790 with his golf club over his shoulder and a caddie with more clubs behind him (mezzotint by Val. Green after L. F. Abbott, 521. 10s.) ; while in the section of Decorative Engravings a negro attendant is a prominent figure in W. Ward's mezzotint of ' The Angler's Repast ' after Morland.
MESSRS. HICHAM & SON fill the first half of their Catalogue 548 with works relating to the New Testament. The prices are very modest, many of the books being only Is. 6d. or 2s. each. Works are entered under authors, with sectional headings such as Apocryphal Gospels, Beatitudes, Gospels, &c., the books in these being also alpha- betically arranged under authors. The second part of the catalogue is of a more general nature, but still predominantly theological.
MESSRS. HEFFER & SONS of Cambridge devote the first part of their Catalogue 165 to books from the library of Theodore W T atts-Dunton and some autograph MSS. by Swinburne. Among the former are m^ny presentation copies of volumes of recent verse, and the prices of these are very moderate, ranging from 2s. 6d. or 3s. Qd. upward. There are two subsections, Gypsies and Occult. The most important of the Swinburne MSS. is a two-page study of Sappho (27?. 10s.). The second part of the catalogue is devoted to English literature, and includes books from the library of our lamented contributor Col. W. F. Prideaux. He was a true lover of books as well as an ideal bibliographer. Many notable things are here
