440
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* b s. IL NOV. 26, m
Secrets Russes.' This was naturally to be expected.
It is a little more surprising to find what appear to
be resemblances with some of the more obscure
Italian stories. A widely spread superstition is said
to exist that a gipsy forgea the nails for the Cruci-
fixion, and that henceforth his race has been accursed
of Heaven. From the ' Folk-lore de Lesbos ' of
Georgeakis and Pineau, Mr. Groome quotes in his
introduction a ' Chant du Vendredi Saint,' a singu-
larly touching poem, in which the Virgin Mary, in
search of her Son, arrested by the Jews, passes in
front of a nail-maker. The following conversation
takes place :
" Good -day, workman, what art making there ? "
" The Jews have ordered nails of me ;
They have ordered four of me ;
But I, I am making them five."
"Tell me, tell me, workman,
What they will do with them."
" They will put two nails in his feet,
Two others in his hands ;
And the other, the sharpest,
Will pierce his lung."
By another legend a gipsy woman, passing by as they were about to crucify Jesus, whipped up one of the nails they were going to use. She would fain have stolen all four, but could not. Her theft is the cause why one nail only was used for the two feet. Jesus then, it is said, gave the Manousch leave to steal once in seven years. Some of the gipsy stories are given in the ' Gesta Romanorum.' Mr. Groome finds it diffi- cult in these cases to determine which is the better version. His remarks on the dispersal of folk-tales by the gipsies have great interest and value. We can but refer our readers to these, without express- ing an opinion upon them. We have, indeed, marked down many noteworthy points, on which we do not enter only because the space we can devote to books is so small. It is needless to recommend the book to our readers. Those interested in the subject are bound to turn to it. It gives a fine collection of stories accompanied by sagacious comment, its perusal is emphatically a pleasure, and it constitutes an all-important contribution to the subject which Mr. Groome declares himself not to know.
Mr. Gladstone. By Sir Edward W.Hamilton, K.C.B.
(Murray.) SIR EDWARD HAMILTON has in this " short mono-
Saph " given us a zakouska preparatory to Mr. orley's great feast. These hors-d'ceuvres, in the shape of sixteen short chapters, are most appe- tizing. It remains to be seen whether we shall be able to appreciate and digest equally well the mass of good things to be presented in the larger meal.
Sir Edward Hamilton, as the son of nis father, was a persona aratissima in the Gladstone family. He had the advantage of being acquainted with Mr. Gladstone for nearly forty years. As private secretary he enjoyed the closest personal intimacy with him. In this little volume Sir Edward Hamilton gives us the result of his observations during this long term of friendship and duty. There is no attempt at biography. It is a simple record of the man from the impressions he had received of him in the performance of his public or private duties. No one, especially one occupying the place of his private secretary, in daily inter- course with his chief could have escaped Mr. 'Gladstone's personal fascination, and Sir Edward Hamilton doubtless writes whilst still under its
glamour. But he is not blind to Mr. Gladstone's
defects, and is fairly impartial in the statement of
his views. Each snort chapter is an interesting
study. Whether Sir Edward Hamilton be delineat-
ing Mr. Gladstone as " the greatest member of the
greatest deliberative assembly which, so far, the
world has seen" to use Mr. Balfour's words
whether he be dwelling upon his energy and in-
dustry, method and power of work, his adminis-
trative capacity, or as the devoted husband and
father, he has given a faithful sketch of the greatest
Englishman of the nineteenth century.
James Hain Friswell : a Memoir. By Laura Hain
Friswell (Mrs. Ambrose Myall). (Redway.) IN the days when Hain Friswell was a hard-working journalist in London, and was writing books such as ' The Gentle Life,' which obtained remarkable vogue, and were highly praised, his daughter was in the habit of assisting him, and caught up, naturally enough, a style so like his own as to deceive some readers. Since a life of Hain Friswell has been called for, she has, no less naturally, supplied it. In the execution of so pious a task she enjoys immunity from criticism. Friswell was, however, it must be said, sensitive and thin-skinned, and, though the author of 'The Gentle Life,' was not always so gentle as he might have been. There are one or two obvious misquotations, which we will attribute to oversight. We are sorry to hear F. Guest Tom- lins, the secretary of the Shakespeare Society, spoken of as "a " Mr. Tomlins. He was in his day a man of some note, and is not yet on the way to be quite forgotten.
10
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