316
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ias.iv. Xov.,i9i8.
always," we learn, " go to see the buildings they
describe." Mr. Torr has a lively sense of humour,
and some of his best fun is made of the mistakes
of the expert. His guests, when they are taken
to the ancient British enclosure of Grimspound,
discover its likeness to Mycenffi. That shows
that he keeps learned company, which, indeed, is
needed to appreciate some of his points in
scholarship.
But the bulk of the book is easily intelligible and excellent reading, especially when the author is talking of his own family and the ways of the Devon folk, who occasionally speak their minds with some of the refreshing candour, say, of Mr. Hardy's Dorset rustics. The country people of England have lived for many years on scanty means and worked hard. They have no use for the idle sentimentalism which flourishes in popular fiction.
We think that the letter from a relative of Mr. Torr's concerning the use of greased cartridges in India in 1857 is hardly a fair statement of the case. The Government of India at an earlier date were aware of the difficulty, and had taken means to meet it. See Sir George Forrest's ' History of the Indian Mutiny.' We quite agree as to the muddle of names of plants, which grows worse and worse. Even Latin names are not fixed, and at Kew what the public calls syringa is Philadelphus. The notes concerning Napoleon that his piercing eyes read your very heart, and that he always wanted an instant answer to a question are amply supported by contemporary evidence. These features of the great man have naturally enough been emphasized by many a writer of Napoleonic romance.
In 1840 travelling outside a coach was con- sidered dangerous to the health. We do not wonder after reading various records of the freezing cold. But we have got over the " danger " of opening windows, which was a great concern to Mr. Torr's grandfather. True, he lived to be 80 and more ; but we have seen a good deal of consumption in a region where windows are kept closed. Cider-making was once, it appears, as successful in Devonshire as in Hereford ; but country people have a habit of neglecting their orchards in other places as well as the borders of Dartmoor. They can have plenty of expert hints for nothing, but they will not take them. This is the bad side of English conservatism.
Mr. Torr has a good word for box edging in gardens, which looks neat and nice when the box will grow freely and regularly. It never did in the cold region of the garden best known to the presenl writer, but evidently at Wreyland there is a kinc climate for flowers and shrubs. We read that the names Beer and Brewer mean respectively a grove of trees and heather. The latter is probably true for a heathery district no one can forget thi show of purple at the bank opposite Fingl< Bridge at the right season ; but Brewer can mean other things, e.g., a worker in brass, and Beer can be related to " byre," a hut, cowhouse.
We should expect Mr. Torr to possess a ghos in his fine old hotise, which, says Meredith, is " a distinction above titles " ; but so far he has onry had a burglar. We are obliged to him for some capital gossip, and we shall be glad to have more Old country lore is dying out fast in these days and not many scholars, perhaps, can manage t get their reminiscences into print.
A Fifteenth Century Bibliography. By James
P. R. Lyell. (Grafton & Co., 2.9. net.)
IB. LYEIX provides in this booklet an interesting iccount of a very early bibliography. One of he fifteenth-century editions of the well-known jrrammar of Guarinus is specially notable is containing the ' Carmina Differentialia ' of Biffus, its editor, and also a list of his manu- cripts and printed books. The latter are three n number, and can be identified in Hain'& Kepertorium,' which includes four other works >y Biffus. The British Museum has no >ook by him, and Mr. Lyell states that no com- lete copy of this edition of Guarinus has been previoiisly described. Internal evidence shows hat the book was probably printed at Milan jetween 1490 and the early part of 1492.
(Dbttnsrn.
SIR HENRY AUSTIN LEE.
THE death occurred at Guernsey on November 7 of Sir Henry Austin Lee, who had retired from his post of Commercial Attache at the British Embassy it Paris only two or three days previously. He was an occasional contributor to 'N. & Q.,' a reply from lim on Dessin's Hotel being printed ante, p. 248. He attended the Berlin Congress of 1878 as assistant private secretary to Lord Beaconsfield. who called him his " Admirable Crichton." A long account of his services is included in ' The Foreign Office List,' and an obituary appeared in The Times on Novem- ber 9.
to (Eomspontonis.
Ox all communications must be written the name
and address of the sender, not necessarily for put
lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
EDITORIAL communications should be addresse to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries'" Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pu lishers " at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.4.
B. BECK (Boston, Mass.), C. GWYN, NIHIL sum, DEO, E. H. H. SHORTING, and W. B. W. AIT; forwarded.
HENRY SAMUEL BRANDRETH (" Securus judicat orbis terrarum "). See under 'Notices to Corre spondents,' ante, p. 148.
WALTER WINANS (" Four All " or " Five All " as Tavern Sign). Explanations of these wer offered at 8 S. vii. 206 and 395.
J. K. (South Africa). Anticipated by cor spondents nearer home. See ante, p. 224. ' explanation of the inscription has been forwarde to the querist.
J. B. H. (" Kogges of Ingland " : " Brystow "J The " cog " was an early vessel, " supposed, says the ' New Eng. Diet.' s.v., " to have been primarily a ship of burden or transport ; but al* used as a ship of war." See the illustrath quotations. " Brystow " was an early spelling of Bristol.
