9 S. VII. MARCH 30, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
259
those Essex islands which were once broad expanses
of mud at low tide, and at high tide shallow and
useless stretches of water." Travelling always on
foot and alone, we hesitated to explore places
every yard of which seemed suggestive of possible
violence and crime. Sir Walter, whose journeys,
we opine, were not solitary, feels with us, and says
of the wall, which extends one hundred and thirty
miles : " If one were to tell of a murder, this would
be a fitting place for the crime The murderer
would choose the time between the passing of two ships ; no one could possibly see him ; he would conduct his victim along the wall, conversing pleasantly till the favourable moment arrived. The deed accomplished, he would leave the wall and strike across the fields till he found a path leading to the haunts of man. Any secret or for- bidden thing might be conveniently transacted on the wall ; it would be a perfectly safe place for the conjuration of conspirators and the concoction of their plans, or it would be a place to hide a stolen trea- sure or where a hunted man could find refuge."
Uncanny indeed it is, and there is no attraction beyond the sense of absolute solitariness that could lead one to it. It is with the working population of the East- End town that Sir Walter is principally concerned. Of this he writes sympathetically and large-heartedly. He is happier than were we, for he finds something to admire physically in the denizens. To us a few years ago the total absence of anything approaching to good looks was appalling. It seemed as if the children were born old, or had not time to stay young. We know indeed few things more saddening than to walk down those endless miles of streets, each just like the other. Concerning the Pool of London, the docks, the Tower Bridge, &c., much may be and is said, and the book is read- able and admirable. Specially attractive are the illustrations, which include an etching by Francis S. Walker, RE., and characteristic designs by Phil May, Joseph Pennell, and L. Raven Hill. These are numerous and well executed, and the book is attractive to the artist as well as the sociologist. Residents in the West -End will find subject for serious reflections in the pictures presented of a life BO close to them and so apart from their own. In reading the volume, which is handsomely got up in all respects, we find it difficult to resist the conclusion that it was originally designed for an American public.
The Marriage Registers of St. Dunstan's, Stepney.
Edited by Thomas Colyer-Fergusson. Vol. III.
1607-1719. ( Privately printed. ) EIGHTEEN months after the appearance of the second volume of Mr. Colyer-Fergusson' s meritorious labours the third volume, carrying the register up to 1719, sees the light. Materials enough for one more volume exist, should it be held desirable to complete the registers up to the Hardwicke Mar riage Act. We have reached now in this volume a point at which the tide of westward migration had begun, and few records of great interest to the historian or the student of literature reward the search. Our own explorations failed to bring to light records of such interest as we traced in dealing with the previous volumes (see 9 th S. ii 279; iv. 239). Mr. Colyer-Fergusson points out however, that "on the 29 th January, 1717, Edmunc Marten, of New College in Oxford, clerk (subse quently Dean of Worcester), married Dame Anna bella Howard, of North Aston, in y e County o"
Oxford," and that " on 7 th April, 1697, Mr. William
reaves of Limehouse, shipwright, espoused Eliza-
>eth Consett of Mile-end." This Greaves, or Graves,
vas a member of a once well-known shipbuilding
irm. Huguenot names remain, of course, abundant,
.hough the indications are not such as enable us to
ssociate the bearers with any well-known refugees,
n a great many cases the names have undergone
notification, as Martino is presumably Martineau.
It is sincerely to be hoped that Mr. Colyer-Fergussou
will receive the support that will encourage him to
jomplete his loyally and earnestly conducted task.
His work, which, as at the references indicated
,boye we have said, is limited to one hundred
copies, can be obtained from him at Wombwell
Elall, Gravesend.
Greek Thinkers. By Prof. Theodore Gomperz.
Vol. I. (Murray.)
WILL the time ever come when the thoughts and speculations of the wise men of ancient Hellas will aave lost the fascination which they have so long jxercised over humanity? Apparently not. So ong as the world lasts the profound intuitions and audacious ratiocinations of that singularly gifted race, with its keen intellect and subtle imaginings, will throw a dominating glamour over the student of philosophy. The world may progress, but Hel- lenism is never out of date nor deposed from its pride of place. The opening days of the twentieth century place before the English public the first instalment of a new work on this ever-fresh theme in a translation of the ' Griechische Denker' of Prof. Gomperz, of Vienna, which appeared four years ago at Leipzig. Dr. Gomperz has devoted the labours of a lifetime to this special department of knowledge, and possesses all the essential virtues of erudition, candour, analytical power, and sober- ness of judgment which such a work demands. In particular, he displays an extent of reading which is little short of marvellous, and quotes our Oxford and Cambridge scholars as freely and readily as he does his German confreres. Even the byways of English literature he seems to have visited and laid under contribution. Thus, when he would describe the stilted antithetical style of the sophist Gorgias, he does so by means of a very pat quota- tion from one of the scarcer euphuistic treatises of John Lyly. When we add to these good gifts the charm of a brilliant and pellucid style, a graphic mode of presentment, and a wide sympathy with culture, modern as well as ancient, we have all the elements of a work which ought to receive a cordial welcome from the English reader, as no doubt it will. The translator, moreover, Mr. Laurie Magnus, who has been helped by the direct co-operation of the author, has done his part with such success that he is altogether forgotten in the perusal, which is perhaps his highest praise. We may just hint our dislike of the phrase that a person "coalesces" two things,, and of the archaism " hearkening a song."
It would be manifestly impossible to give more than the barest outline of what this well-filled volume contains. Opening with an introduction, in which he gives a masterly survey of the effects of its environment on ancient Greece, its obliga- tions to the more ancient civilizations of Babylon and Egypt, and its earliest religious development througn animism to polytheism, Dr. Gomperz goes on to discuss the nai've speculations of Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Heraclitus, and other
