Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/407

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8* s. ii. NOV. 12, '98,] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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commentators; When, on the nomination of Glad- stone, he was appointed a brother of the Charter- house, he brought to a practical close a worthy and creditable careeri Already, however, the moss of oblivion was growing over his fame, and when he died a new generation, eager in its worship at fresh shrines, had all but entirely forgotten him. His daughter, whilom an actress of note, has under- taken the pious task of writing his biography. So far as bricks can be made without straw she has been successful. Unfortunately, she herself remembers little, and such information as she receives from other sources is mostly trivial. Heraud himself began an autobiography, which, if continued, would have been of value. Un- happily, the task was no sooner commenced than abandoned. Southey's letters supply, to some ex- tent, a revelation of literary development, and assign value to the book in which they appear. When they cease, however, there is practically no more to be said, and the second half of the volume is occupied principally with a record of Miss Heraud's artistic career, interesting and full of promise at the outset, but interrupted by dangerous and dis- abling illness. To those who remember or know father or daughter the volume, which contains an admirable likeness of Heraud, will commend itself. It is worthy of the attention of others interested in the intellectual growth and development of the present century.

IN an excellent number of the Journal of the Ex- Libris Society appears the fifth article of Miss Edith Carey on ' Guernsey Book-plates.' This is occupied with the Le Marchant plates, many interesting specimens of which are reproduced. In 'Odd Volumes and their Book-plates' the fine plate of Mr. George Clulow, designed by Mr. John Leighton, is given, as is that of the late Cornelius Walford. A note 'On some Philipse Book-plates' is also illustrated.

MAINLY occupied with wars and rumours of wars in Africa and. it must be owned, in the Church, the reviews have less space than usual even to devote to those subjects, literary or artistic, with which alone we are justified in dealing. Two papers in the Fortnightly, however, have genuine literary interest. Mr. Arthur Symons writes upon 'Stephane Mal- larme, the Parisian poet, between whom and Mr. George Meredith a species of parallel is established. Mallarme's obscurity is said to have been partly his failure to carry out the spirit of his own intentions. Mallarme, it is held, was not a mystic, but "a thinker in whom an extraordinary subtlety of mind " was exercised on problems always explicit, but " by no means " common. We have altered the arrangement of a few of Mr. Symons's words. Mr. George Wyndham is one of the most recent, but also one of the most far-seeing, of our students of Tudor times, and his 'Elizabethan Adventure in Elizabethan Literature ' is a singularly interesting and valuable contribution. Its aim is to show the influence over Shakspeare and his contemporaries of that spirit of adventure which was rife in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. A con- siderable portion of the article is taken up with a record of the deeds of the explorers. " The glorious life of the adventurers was crowded," as Mr. Wyndham says, " into the brief compass of but two decades '*; and he adds, "Their El Dorado vanished in thin air, but they founded the British empire of the sea." Mr. Escott writes on ' Henry


Reeve.' 'A Diary at Santiago' is concluded, in consequence of the death of the diarist. There is a scrimmage between Mr. Lang and Mr. John M. Robertson on ' The Origin of Religion,' and a paper on ' Secondary Education ' by Mr. Cloudesley Brere- ton. Mr. Frederic Harrison writes, in the Nine- teenth Century, on ' The Historical Method of Prof. Freeman.' Wide as was the range of Freeman's historical studies, it is said to have " recognized very rigid limits of its own," rarely referring to anything in Europe later than the fifteenth century. The foundation of his teaching is shown in the famous Rede Lecture of 1872, " in some respects the broadest and most masterly of all Freeman's essays," in which he declares that the history of man, or, "at all events, the history of Aryan man in Europe, must be regarded as one unbroken whole, no part of which can be safely looked at without reference to other parts." The italics are in the original. In the limitation thus imposed Mr. Harrison finds "a fatal qualification." One conclusion reached is that Freeman, " however great as a scholar and a student, had but slight grasp of a sound philosophy of his- tory, and had no very definite philosophy of history of his own." ' The Roman Roads of Britain ' is by Mr. W. B. Paley, and is accompanied by a map. Mr. Paley holds that Uriconium, the exploration ofwhich we undertook near half a century ago with Thomas Wright, the antiquary, was probably the most important town between Dover and Chester, Lon- don even not excepted. The task is possible, with the aid of the map, to trace the course of this marvellous monument of Roman energy and civi- lization. Mr. Harry L. Stephen has an interesting paper on ' Judging in the Gambia.' The Century appears with a classical and finely illustrated cover, designed by Grasset. First in its contents is a portrait of Dr. Weir Mitchell, by Cecilia Reaux, like the cover, in colours. An account by Mr. Ben- jamin Ide Wheeler of Alexander the Great has admirable illustrations by A. Castaigne and other artists. Another article of equal merit, as regards both letterpress and designs, is upon Franklin. Cole's ' Old English Masters ' deals with Sir Henry Raeburn, and reproduces his eminently character- istic portrait of Lord Newton. Capt. Sigsbee begins a series of papers giving the personal narrative of the ill-fated Maine, of which the writer was the com- mander. ' From the London Times of 1904,' by Mark Twain, is founded, in a sense, on the Dreyfus case, and is accompanied by a portrait of the writer. Lowell's ' Impressions of Spain ' is one more among many excellent papers. A very amusing article in Macmillan'a is by Mr. Michael MacDonagh, and has for its subject ' Love-Making in Ireland.' Some eniinently characteristic stories of Irish blarney are given. We wish we were justified in extracting some of them. Mr. Frederick Boyle writes on ' The Capacity of Savages.' Mr. G. A. Levett- Yeats

S'ves a pleasing description of his ' Indian Garden.' r. Yonge supplies curious particulars concerning ' The Insanity of the Criminal.' ' Domesticity,' by Mr. Stephen Gwynn, deals from a new point of view with points of difference between English and French. Not wholly to our credit or advantage ia the distinction. ' An Apostle of the Jews,' in Temple Bar, deals with the sad fate, now almost forgotten, of Stoddart and Connolly, and depicts the heroically carried out mission of Joseph Wolff. ' In the Country of Laurence Sterne ' depicts some Yorkshire scenery, and deals incidentally with the proceedings at Skelton Castle, the seat of Sterne's