Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/318

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260 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.VIIL MARCH 26, 1921. "ballad is still sung to the accompaniment of the -dance. We are grateful to Mr. Kershaw for giving tis the notation of many of the tunes and -refrains, which, as he says, have something in common with Gregorian music, and are remark- able too for the curious close of the song which falls often on the supertonic or leading note, with an effect to our ears of surprise. There is no instrumental music in the Islands, and the song .and dance are conducted by a precentor. The most important of the ballads given here is a Faroese variant of the Heryor story, which is somewhat inferior to the Saga in movement and colour. No very great literary merit can be claimed for any of the ballads but the reader will find a good deal to interest him from the mythological and sociological points of view. Mr Kershaw gives an excellent general introduc- tion to each division of the book, and each separate item is preceded by a short account of .its history and elucidation of its subject matter. English Place-Name Study: Us Present Condition and Future Possibilities. By Allen Mawer. (Humphrey Milford, l<6d. net). -THIS 'brochure gives us the excellent address , delivered by Frof." Mawer last January to the British Academy. We had recently the pleasure {ante T p. 39) of reviewing his work on the place- names of Northumberland and Durham, and of mentioning two sound rules therein laid down by .m The ? first fixes 1500 as a working limit; names for which no forms earlier than that date Sre^extant are to be held unprofitable for ety- mological study. The second prefers historical Sid especially topographical to linguistic refer-

  • nce- in fact erects the superiority of topo-

Sraphical reference into a principle. The reader will find these rules again and somewhat more Jullv discussed here and therewith the contention put forth that the piece-meal study of place- names is unsatisfactory. The first requisite for th study would then be the coUecting and ordering of material from the whole of England. Work on Prof. Mawer's principles as he says, could hardly be performed by isolated scholars ; ^? be taken up by some learned society, and,

Tct he seteSmsIlf to persuade the British Academy to come forward in the cause He has a eood^deal to urge both as to the advantage tcSng from the ftudy qf place-names to other tSs?and as to the example of the Scandinavian .kingdoms. London County Council Indication of Houses of % Historical Interest ^n London. Part XLV. 3d. TWF Council's work of indicating by means of nSmoriaTtablete the houses of interest in London 5oe7steadily, though somewhat slowly, on. The Publication of thele excellently printed pam- hlete giving short biographies of the personages .?oncern!d; illustrations of the houses and ' sketches of the tablets and inscriptions is hardly .less good a work than the affixmg of the memorials ^wThave here accounts of 87 Jermyn Street asaac Nlwton); 188 Camberwell Grove and 40 Princess Gardens (Joseph Chamberlain) ; and Berkeley Square (Colin Campbell). The tablet on Joseph Chamberlain's birthplace in Camber- ' vell Grove, though literally correct, seems likely improve misleading to the casual visitor. Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology. Vol VIII. No. 1. (Liverpool : University Press.) WE are glad to welcome the re-appearance of these Annals after an interval of four years. The number before us is of the highest interest. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths gives a detailed and illustrated account of some of the work of excavation carried out by the Oxford Expedition in Nubia (1910-13) at Faras. Mr. J. L. Myres describes a rare Cypriote fibula of the Early Iron Age from Rhodes. Prof. Halliday contributes a first instalment of a delightful work : ' Pheidippides : a Study of Good Form in Fifth-Century Athens.' It is a most deftly- wrought piece of mosaic, displaying all the vivacity of a picture, and having each particle in the text unobtrusively referred to abundant references and erudite notes at the end of the article. WE have received a useful and interesting ' Hand- list of Indexes to Norfolk and Suffolk Works.' The compiler has indexed or re- indexed, over sixty collections Records, Visitations, local Histories and other like masses of material, the indexes being mostly both nominum and locorum, in the case of Folk-lore publications also rerum. Students desiring to avail themselves of these compilations are invited to communicate with W. de Castre, care of the Librarian, Public Library, Great Yarmouth. WE have received The Durham University Journal for April (Durham, Is. Qd. net) which contains a further instalment of Mr. W. T. Jones's scholarly account of the walls and towers of Durham illustrated by a ground plan of the city. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers" at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. ; corrected proofs to the Athenaeum Press, 11 and 13 Bream's Buildings, E.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses immediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found. EPITAPHS DESIRED (12 S. viii. 211). MR. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT writes : " Both these epitaphs have recently been printed in ' N. & Q.' ; that on William Billinge, at 11 S. xi. 490, and that on George Routleigh (not Rowleigh) at 11 S. iv. 265." W. COURTHOPE FORMAN. A correspondence on the subject of the ballad of ' Lord Lovel and Lady Nancy ' will be found at 11 S. v. 330 ; vi. 37, 115, ill, 217, 296. CORRIGENDUM. Ante, p. 238, middle of col. 1, for " Le Roue de Lancy," read Le Roux de Lincy