Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/304

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NOTES AND QUERIES.


VIIL OCT. 5, uoi.


was done. We wonder if any other record of this catastrophe has come down to us. Mr. J. Eyre Poppleton has communicated interesting notes on some of the church bells of the West Riding. The paper is illustrated by facsimiles.

THE Fortnightly, the cover of which has a mourn- ing band, opens with an anonymous article on ' Two Presidents and the Limits of American Supremacy.' After the expression of sympathy for loss is over the article becomes as unreservedly political as the ' Assassination a Fruit of Socialism ' by which it is followed. In ' The Popularity of Criticism 'of Mr. Nowell Smith we are on safer ground. Mr. Smith dwells on the enormous preponderance of gossip in literature, by which he appears to mean news- papers, the connexion of which with literature is not the closest imaginable. The article then dis- cusses Prof. Saintsbury and Mr. Lang, the former incurring a rap on the knuckles for his affectations of style. Against Mr. Smith's censure we have nothing to urge. We are far, however, from accept- ing the theory concerning criticism that "it is a form of gossip, or, if the last shred of flippancy is to be cast off, a very superior substitute for gossip." 4 Ravenna' is the subject of an essay, to some extent descriptive, by Mr. Harold Spender. The writer complains of the neglect into which this city, which "took from Rome the fading glories of the latter Empire," has fallen : " Her streets are grass-grown. Her churches are empty. The very tourist shrinks from her depressed hostelries." Its associations with Theodoric, with Dante (whose tomb it con- tains), with Byron, and with the Countess Guiccioli are insisted on, and there is a sketch of the melan- choly pine woods that now separate it from the Adriatic. Miss Elizabeth Lewthwaite has an inter- esting and a practical article on ' Women's Work in Western Canada,' showing for what class of female emigrants Western Canada constitutes a desirable home. The frontispiece to the Pall Mall consists of a reproduction of Nattier's beautiful portrait of Henriette de Bourbon-Conty. Following this comes a characteristic ' Prseludium,' by Mr. W. E. Henley, which in turn gives place to 'The Kaiser and his Family,' which is styled by the writer, Mr. Charles Lowe, ' A Study in Heredity.' It is illustrated by portraits by E. M. Ward, C. R. Leslie, Win'terh alter, and others, and by an allegorical design by the Emperor himself. 'The Next Pope' supplies a series of portraits of the cardinals from whom the next Pope will presumably be selected. In this we have an account of the famous prophecies of St. Malachy, in the twelfth century Archbishop of Armagh. Mr. Matthew Dunn describes sea serpents and shows many monsters of the deep, and Mr. Tighe Hopkins gives an interesting account of the growth and influence of the great publishing house of Tauchnitz. In 'Ex-Libris' Mr. Henley treats of the P.R.B., and deals with the recent reprint of the Germ. Mr. Quiller - Couch has a strange story of 'The Talking Ships.' A quite excellent number of the Cornhul opens with No 6 V> f - T he ] , }la( i ks , tick papers,' by Mrs. Richmond Kitcnie. It deals with George Sand in her famous residence at Nohaut and her friends of later life, including Henri Anne, whose revelations con- cerning her are the latest we have received Mr Quiller-Couch is also at his best in ' Laying up the Boat.' It is a pleasantly discursive article on the pleasures of yachting or sailing. ' Mrs. Carlyle and


her Housemaid' supplies some agreeable letters written by Mrs. Carlyle to a woman she engaged as a domestic servant. ' Cochrane Redivivus ' is a spirited and, we suppose, fictitious account of cutting out a prize. ' A Londoner's Log-Book ' is not, perhaps, so brilliant as was last month's instalment, but is humorous and amusing. *The Motive of Tragedy ' is based in part upon Dr. W. L. Courtney's 'Idea of Tragedy.' Mr. G. S. Street writes delightfully on ' The Persistence of Youth,' and Mr. E. V. Lucas on ' The Circus.' Further instal- ments of Dr. Fitchett's ' Tale of the Great Mutiny ' and Mr. Stanley J. Weyman's 4 Count Hannibal ' make up one of the best numbers we can recall. The Gentleman's gives a series of ' Italian Cradle-Songs ' from various provinces, compiled by Mr. E. C. Vansittart, and recalling the collections of Miss R. H. Busk. Miss Climenson gives ' Jekylliana,' which are interesting, but of unequal value. Mr. Meetkerke writes on ' The Lyric Poetry of _Victor Hugo,' and Dr. Japp on * Mound-Making Birds.' Col. A. L. Paget sends to Longman's the first part of some profoundly interesting observations of a 'Commandant Prisoners of War at Deadwood Camp.' The Rev. John Vaughan writes on ' Gil- bert White.' In ' At the Sign of the Ship ' Mr. Lang is discursive and very amusing. Once or twice he furnished us with the luxury of a guffaw. Two short stories are interesting, though somewhat puerile. In the hands of Mr. Fisher Unwin the English Illustrated surpasses itself. The illustra- tions to ' The Chateaux of Touraine ' are admirable, and we gaze with much pleasure at views of Blois, Amboise, Chenoriceau, Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon, and other pleasure houses and places of historic interest, wishing only for Loches, in some respects the most picturesque of all. ' The Dead Villages of the Zuiderzee' and ' Montenegro of To-day' are capital.


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