280
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. OCT. 4 1902.
of orphans, of whom the Mayor and aldermen were
guardians. A comparison between the conditions
as regards free birth prevailing in London and m
ancient Rome is instituted. The precautions token
by the civic authorities against the too easy admis-
sion of strangers were intended to keep out unsuit-
able characters, rather than discourage applications
from respectable foreigners. A strange provision
was that no foreigner seeking to acquire by redemp-
tion the privilege of the City should wear a beard
"of more prolyxte or length" than that worn by
other citizens. It appears that in the year 1309
the number of taverners in London was 354, while
that of brewers amounted to 1,334. This naturally
reminds us that well into the last century baking
and brewing were domestic avocations. We come
in Letter-Book D on proofs of the king's extreme
"partiality" to Peter de "Gavastone" (Gaveston)
and other favourites. Gaveston writes from York
on 21 October, 1309, to the Mayor, &c., asking for
the office of Common Serjeant for a certain John
Albon. The king wrote to the same effect. Com-
pliance with both requests was evaded. Much
curious information is given concerning the guardian-
ship of the orphans of freemen exercised by the
Mayor and aldermen. From the historical stand-
point this Letter-Book seems the most important
yet calendared.
A Popular History of the Ancient Britons. By the
Rev. John Evans, B.A. (Stock.) THE author adds rather whimsically to his title "or the Welsh People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Nineteenth Century." One would sup- pose they had turned into modern Britons long before that terminus ad quern. What he means is that, having traced the history of the Cymry down to the thirteenth century in twenty-eight chapters, he has appended six more on their progress and development in later times. The Celts being the oldest and in many respects most spiritual element of our heterogeneous nation, there was room for a good popular history of the Welsh such as Mr. Evans has produced. Not, indeed, that the Welsh were themselves by any means a homogeneous people; they seem to have been a mixture oi Goidels (or Gaels) and Brythons, grafted on the pre- historic Iberians or Silurians, which took long to amalgamate into the one Cymric race. It was not till the reign of Henry VIII. that they were finally incorporated as a constituent part of the English people. With them, as with the Irish and other subjugated races, the English Government made th< fatal blunder, which it has hardly yet unlearnt, o: attempting to produce uniformity py crushing ou national character and assimilating it at all hazards to the alien Saxon type. Worst of all, the Church of the dominant people was forced upon its subject as a means to secure their political subjugation The natural reaction was seen in the plentiful cro] of dissent which has been rife in Wales.
Mr. Evans's history does not profess to be a worl of original research, but it is a careful and impartia narrative written in a somewhat bald and jejun style. The author always grounds himself, how ever, on authorities of repute, such as Skene, Rhvs Stephens, Guest, and Seebohm. The word " Druid,' the author correctly notes, has nothing to do wit] Ipvq, the oak, but is identical with the Celti draoithe, drai, a wise man or magician, which Max Miiller, by the way, traced up to a Sanskrit root druh, mischief, or the power of darkness. Th
Picti," no doubt, were the " painted " men of the
lomans, but Mr. Evans fails to mention that
his was only a translation of the native name
>uithnigh, which had the same meaning.
7 Ae French Revolution. By Thomas Carlyle. (Chap- man & Hall.)
'LEASANT, indeed, is it to have this masterpiece of Carlyle on India paper. The entire work is com- >rised in a volume the weight of which in the hand s scarcely perceptible. The text is perfectly egible and distinct, and the edition is in some espects ideal. We should like the entire works in , similar form, and are glad that the best known re in preparation. We have a great affection for _ndia-paper editions, and do not grudge the little pains involved at times in separating the pages, which is its only drawback. Hampstead and London. By G. E. Mitton. Edited
by Sir Walter Besaut. (A. & C. Black ) THE first volume to reach us of the series to be mown as " The Fascination of London," designed >y Sir Walter Besant, consists of a description of lampstead, where he long lived. In the aspects, ncturesque or antiquarian, of Hampstead he took i keen and special interest. Miss Mitton's volume s delightful in all respects, and ushers in what is ikely to prove a most useful and interesting series.
The Book of God's Kingdom. (The Bible House.) UNDER this title the British and Foreign Bible Society gives a popular account of its operations during the past year, with plenty of good illustra- tions of the most notable people and places which have come within the sphere of its working.
t0
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