art There are bæcestre. He imagines that the Runes originated seems to produce no less than Norway. He These eccentric speculations are made the texts right. We cannot remember a single mediaeval instance of its use in England. Now it is probably the most common Christian name among English Roman Catholics. We believe there is not a single pre-Reformation church in this island dedicated to Saint Joseph. Gloves: their Annals and Associations. A Chapter of Trade and Social History. By S. William Beck. (Hamilton, Adams, & Co.) Mr. Beck is known as the author of The Drapers' Dictionary, which, we believe, is a valuable book of reference. His present compilation for it is little more-will be found very useful to all those who are interested in the history of costume. The author has read diligently in many out-of-the-way books, and has brought together a great amount of information concerning gloves. The organising faculty is, however, nearly entirely absent; and so his book, though overflowing with facts, is by no means easy reading. This defect is, however, in some degree atoned for by a good Index. some useful facts noted which show how very injurious to trade and morals the old protective laws were by which it was hoped that the glove trade would be fostered. By far the best portion of the book is that which deals with the symbolical use of the glove. Some facts are there recorded which are new to us. The volume contains many good illustrations. Guide to Southwell Minster. With a History of the College of Secular Canons. By Grevile (Southwell: Whittingham.) Southwell minster is soon to become Southwell Cathedral. Its bishop will, we believe, have The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of jurisdiction over the counties of Nottingham and Great Britain. By John H. Ingram. (W. H. Derby. This seems a fitting time for the publi- Allen.) Under a somewhat pompous title we cation of a history of a church which has undying have here a collection of miscellaneous ghost interest for the student of architecture. It is stories, gathered from well-known sources. not as a beautiful relic of antiquity alone that They are, indeed, arranged in alphabetical we must think of Southwell. As one of the very order with reference to locality, but a large earliest secular canonries in England, and as a number of them-we had almost said the great fee of the Archbishop of York, its history majority-have nothing to do with either Eis of first-rate importance for all who would haunted homes" 'family traditions." understand the ecclesiastical life of mediaeval They are merely isolated instances of appariEngland. Mr. Livett's Guide is pretty nearly tions. In one case we must protest against the all that can be desired in a short account. It manner in which Mr. Ingram has performed his will not impede the publication of an exhaustive duty as compiler. No one that has read The history, should any antiquary be moved to give Lay of the Last Minstrel is likely to forget "the us one; but it will give a great amount of spectre-hound in Man," or the long passage instruction and pleasure to those who visit the about the "Mauthe Doog" which Scott quotes minster as tourists, and still more to permanent from Waldron's Description of the Isle of Man. residents in the neighbourhood. We do not reMr. Ingram, in telling the story (pp. 190-92), member that we have ever read a better guide- mentions Waldron but not Scott, and gives in k; certainly we have never seen one which for inverted commas what purports to be a quotaits size contained a larger amount of highly tion, which is utterly spoilt by condensation and ondensed information. There are a few state-modernising of the language. In this improved ents in the first chapter which we should feel und to call in question; if we were writing a long review of the book, but they relate to obscure matter of little moment. Mairis Livett. Older England: illustrated by the AngloSaxon Antiquities in the British Museum, in a Curse of Six Lectures. By J. Frederick Hodgetts. (Whiting.) The lectures of which this volume consists were delivered to a private lience in the Anglo-Saxon room of the British Museum. The author deplores in strong language the gross ignorance of most dacated English people with regard to the anguage and history of their Teutonic ances 66 66 or version of Waldron he characteristically mis- Tracks in Norway of Four Pairs of Feet, NOTES AND NEWS. WE understand that Mr. Swinburne has written a paper on "Wordsworth and Byron" for the Nineteenth Century which will probably appear in the April number. MR. THEODORE WATTS has undertaken the article on "Poetry" for the Encyclopaedia and we confess that we should have had fears Britannica. The subject is a formidable one, about its treatment by almost any other of our critics. But, as it is, fear is replaced by pleasure that we shall now have the opportunity of reading in a connected form those comprehensive views about poetical composition - its growth and its laws-which have hitherto been expressed only incidentally to special criticisms. MR. BUNIYU NANJIO, the young Buddhist priest from Japan who has been residing at Oxford for the study of English and Sanskrit for more than five years, has been suddenly summoned to return to the monastery at Kioto. Before his departure the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. THE fifth and concluding volume of The Old Testament Commentary for English Readers, edited by Bishop Ellicott, will be published early next month by Messrs. Cassell & Co. The volume will contain Jeremiah to Malachi; and the contributors will be Dean Plumptre, the Rev. Dr. F. Gardiner, the Rev. Henry Deane, the Rev. Dr. Reynolds, the Rev. S. L. Warren, the Rev. A. S. Aglen, the Rev. A. C. Jennings, the Rev. W. H. Lowe, and Prof. Whitehouse. MESSRS. KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & Co. will shortly issue The Foundation of Death: a Study of the Drink Question, by Mr. Axel Gustafson, which will be the first work published in England treating the subject from all standpoints. Besides a large variety of quotations on the historical, chemical, physiological, pathological, therapeutical, mental, moral, social, philosophical, political, and remedial aspects of the question, it will include an eclectic bibliography of some eight hundred works published in the various countries from the earliest times to the present date, each country's contributions being given separately and in chronological order. MR. WESTWOOD will contribute to the new series of the Angler's Note-Book a paper, with illustrations from the original blocks, on the Compleatest Angling Book of Mr. Joseph Crawhall a book in which the quaint humour of its author finds characteristic expression with pen and pencil, and which is as rare, and even as dear, as the Gryndalls and Mascalls of the sixteenth century. 66 Angling Books and their Bindings, with a Glimpse of Charles Lamb," Mr. Westwood in the same periodical, of which the circulation will on this occasion be confined to subscribers. Mr. Satchell, of 19 Tavistock Street, is the publisher. tors, and in this volume he undertakes to supply that it is a specimen of that absolutely unread- will also form the subject of another paper by what he considers sound information on these bjects. Mr. Hodgetts' complaints of the evailing ignorance are certainly well founded; unfortunately he is himself only a blind der of the blind. His manner of dealing wh philological questions is so amusing that We cannot refrain from citing a few specis. He argues that the word ceastre (sic) not of Latin derivation, but is a purely Anglo-Saxon word, meaning "she who encloses "-after the analogy, we suppose, of able form of travel literature-the pseudo- Shetland and the Shetlanders. By Charles MESSRS. GRIFFITH & FARRAN will publish immediately a little book by Canon Hole, entitled What is a Mission? MR. W. E. A. AxON's volume of Cheshire Gleanings is in the binder's hands, and will be issued immediately. It contains about fifty separate articles bearing on the history, folklore, and associations of the County Palatine. MR. J. POTTER BRISCOE, principal librarian of the Nottingham Free Public Libraries, has put together a second volume of Old Nottinghamshire, of which the first volume appeared in 1881. It will be published by subscription, and will probably be ready for issue some time in May. Sunday Talk, a Sunday magazine for the homes of the people, edited by Principal Tulloch, will begin a new series in April. Henceforth, it will be doubled in size, and will be illustrated. It is a monthly, price twopence, and is published by Messrs. Dunn & Wright, 100 West George Street, Glasgow. THE Bayswater Chronicle has set a good example to the local press of the metropolis by publishing a series of illustrated papers on the history and antiquities of Paddington. The illustration for this week is to be "Paddington Old Parish Church, 1780, with the Village Stocks." MESSRS. SOTHEBY will sell on Thursday next, March 27, immediately following the five days' sale of Mr. Francis Bedford's books, a further portion of the library of the late Gregory Lewis Wray, including a number of English and French romances and rare ballads and historical tracts. There are also first editions of both parts of the Faerie Queene, of Sidney's Arcadia, and of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Lycidas; Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1630), and the Rape of Lucrece (1655). Mr. Carey's political economy. At the annual dinner of the Book-Trade Association of Philadelphia on February 23, Mr. Henry C. Baird delivered a long address which was substantially an attack upon copyright. in general. The opposition, in the House of Representatives was led by Mr. Deuster, a naturalised German, who represents a district of Wisconsin; and his chief argument was that the Philadelphia reprinters of German literature would be ruined. The following is the conclusion of the Report in favour of the Bill presented by the Judiciary Committee: "The committee do not think it necessary to enter into a discussion of the general principles upon which the law of copyright rests. There is no civilised country which does not in some form recognise the property which an author has in the that the United States should grant this right of creation of his intellect. The committee think Property to foreigners as well as to natives. There can be no just discrimination based upon the nationality of the person to whom the property rightfully belongs. The policy by which States refused rights of property to foreigners has long since been reversed. In most, if not in all, the States of the Union, foreigners are entitled to hold the same terms as natives. It is manifest that the property, both real and personal, upon precisely ancient discriminations grew out of ignorance and prejudice, and that the modern rule conduces to civilisation and to the peace of nations. It is believed that, if the Bill accompanying this Report is passed, American authors will receive great and valuable advantages. They will then be able to obtain copyrights in England and in the English colonies, so that when they successfully address all compensation to which their genius and industry the English-speaking people they will receive the may entitle them. The committee earnestly commend this measure to the House, in the full belief that its passage will work a high and enduring benefit to the people of the United States, and contribute to the civilisation and enlightenment of the world." COPIES of the latest edition of Sir Thomas Elyot's Gouernour are now being sold for 15s., a reduction of seventy per cent. on the advertised price. This enormous reduction is partly due to the destruction of the plates by which Holbein's portraits of the author and his wife were so finely reproduced. But, even with the loss of the portraits, the work at the present price is ridiculously cheap, for the glossary at the end MESSRS. MACMILLAN announce a new cabinet of the second volume is alone worth the money edition of Tennyson's poems, in seven volumes, now asked for the entire work by the book-uniform with the edition they published recently sellers. It is needless to add that copies con- in America of Mr. Matthew Arnold's works. taining the Holbein portraits are not likely to be often in the market. DR. EUGEN OSWALD is delivering a course of lectures at Leicester, on four successive Tuesdays, beginning last week, on "Modern German Literature from the Death of Schiller to the Present Day." Ar the last meeting of the Manchester Literary Club Mr. C. W. Sutton read a paper on Manchester Bibliography for the year 1883." He explained that this was the fourth year for which the titles of works by Manchester authors, or printed in the city, had been collected. The figures were for 1880, 393; for 1881, 365; for 1882, 441; for 1883, 533. These figures must be only taken as approximated, as many pamphlets, if not books, probably escape record. A great amount of work done in connexion with the general scientific and literary societies of the kingdom lay outside the scope of this bibliography. The classi fication of the 533 titles was as follows: Almanacs, &c., 15; bibliography, 9; biography, 11; education and philology, 53; essays, &c., 17; games, 2; history, topography, and antiquities, 9; music, 139; Oriental literature, 1; periodicals, 74; poetry, 7; politics, commerce, &c., 76; fiction and children's tales, 44; science and arts, 33; publications of societies, 7; and theology, 36. AMERICAN JOTTINGS. ACCORDING to the papers received this week, the discussion on the Dorsheimer Copyright Bill is proceeding actively. The only serious opposition seems to come from Philadelphia, which was, it will be remembered, the stronghold of MR. W. M. GRISWOLD, of "Q. P. Index' fame, has nearly ready a Manual of Biographical Literature, in two parts, the first being a dietionary of biographical reference, and the second an index to biographical works. The former claims to be only a supplement to Oettinger's Bibliographie biographique, which closes with 1854; the latter is believed to be original. The work will be published by subscription at two dollars (8s.). THE New York Critic, following an English precedent, purposes to elect by the votes of its readers "forty American authors who are most worthy of a place in a possible American Academy.' no A LARGE volume, entitled South Carolina, just published by the Commissioner of Agriculture of that State, gives some curious facts regarding the constituents of the population. The number of foreign-born has largely decreased since 1860, despite efforts to encour age immigration from Europe; the coloured population, which is increasing, shows tendency to separate from the general populathe whites that it would be difficult to find un tion and become localised; it is so mixed with is scarcely a township in which one or more assured specimen of pure African blood; there families (chiefly negroes) are not to be found with distinct traces of the Indian descent which they claim. SWISS JOTTINGS. SOME time since the Swiss Federal Department of the Interior appointed a special commission to report on the preservation of monuments of Swiss History and Swiss Art. The commission consisted of Herr von Rodt, of the Historical Museum in Bern; Herr Stadler, President of the Gewerbe Museum; Profs. Rahn and Vögelin, of Zürich; Imhof Rüsch, of Basel; J. MeyerAmrhyn; Th. de Saussure, of Geneva; Herr Wild, Director of the Museum in St. Gallen: and Dr. Kaiser, the Federal Architect of Bern. They recommend that the Federal Government should grant a yearly subvention to the present Swiss Gesellschaft für Erhaltung der historischen Kunstdenkmäler; but that all articles purchased by the society, with the approval of the Bundesrath, shall become the property of the Confederation, and shall be placed on exhibition in the various cantonal and municipal museums on the understanding that they are to be removed to the Fell Swiss Museum " in the event of such an institution being established. 66 THE Committee of the Mittelalterliche Sammlung at Basel has issued a report of the condition of that excellent collection, and of its gains during the last year. In nearly every previous year it has had to chronicle its debts to the old Guilds of Basel (Zünfte), but the past year. On the other hand, it has been has received nothing from these sources during enriched by 135 gifts or presents during the year, including some splendid tapestry from Kloster Feldbach, a quantity of mediaeva pottery from the excavations at Kloster Fraubrunnen, and an altar-piece of the sixteenth century from the same monastery. The com mittee promises to issue during the present year the mediaeval treasures in the collection. "exhaustive and scientific catalogue of an THE Museum of Neuchâtel has been enriched by the present of a portrait of the painter Leopold Robert. It is in profile, and is the work of a friend of Robert's, Ulysses Sandoz, who died in Paris in 1815. discovery of between 1,600 and 1,700 coins by THE Volksstimme of Rheinfelden reports the Herr Gessler, of the mill "Zum Rossli" at BaselAugst, the site of the Roman colony Augusta Rauracorum. The oldest pieces bear the names of the Emperor Valerianus (A.D, 253-63) Most, however, are from the mint of the Gallic Postumus whom Valerianus appointed governor of the Gauls, and who was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. His rule extended over this district. There are also many coins of Gallienus, the son of Valerianus, and of his wife Salonna. It is expected that this remarkable find, after it has been cleaned and scientifically examined, will prove of great importance to the numismatic history of German Switzerland. THE ancient tower of Ouchy has been bought from the Cantonal Government of Vaud for 100,000 frs. by Syndic Dapples, who has it. The tower was engaged to "restore" originally erected by Bishop Landry de Durnes in 1170, and is first mentioned as the "Turre Count Thomas of Savoy Rippe de Ochys." nearly destroyed it in 1200, but it was re-erected by Bishop Roger. The Bishops of Lausanne used it as a residence, and as the depository of the episcopal archives, until the Reformation. destroyed about the end of the seventeenth The fortifications and connected buildings were century. interesting work on an old Swiss custom which DR. HERMANN MEYER has just published an tended so largely to maintain glass-painting ass calling in Switzerland-Die Schweizerische Sitte der Fenster-und-Wappen-Schenkung vom 15te bis 17ten Jahrhundert (Frauenfeld: J. Huber). The book contains a catalogue of the Zürich glasspainters from 1540. In German Switzerland in the sixteenth century there were about one hundred glass-painters-in the city of Zürich T not less than twenty-who found sufficient work and pay in their own little fatherland. Zürich was the recognised centre of this prosperous guild. Konrad Meyer, who died in 1766, was the last of the famous Zürich glass-painters. A MODERN OTTOMAN POEM. THE poem of which the following is a translation is taken from a little book of verses, entitled Zemzeme, published about eighteen months ago by Mahmud Ekrem Bey, Professor of Literature at the Ecole civile, Constantinople. In the translation, which is line for line with the original, the rhyme-movement and, so far as possible, the metre of the Turkish have been retained.] These lines were suggested by a picture in the Mir'at-i 'Álem (the Mirror of the World," an illustrated newspaper published in Constantinople) of ayoung peasant girl fondling a lamb in her arms, while the mother sheep by her side looks wistfully up to her. Look on this scene so fair of seeming, List to this descant plaintive streaming, Each lovely picture, soul-entrancing, Is a flash from the Glory of Allah thrown. Is a point from the volume of Allah shown. Is a chord from the rebeck of Allah blown. O Thon who in Glory wondrous shinest, O Thou who art wise and all designest, In every atom Thine Essence streams. 0 Thou the Creator, Best, Benignest, Shone Thou not forth with light excelling, In all things birth and generation Is the law that forth from Thy Wisdom flows; Is the grace that soft from Thy Mercy blows; Is all a work by Thy Power that grows. Glory to Thee, O All-Director! Whence is the love of child for mother? Opes not the thought towards Thee aspiring, From Eden a houri skywards wending, "O love of my soul, why this sad mourning? Within my heart there springs a yearning; Art thou weary of my love then? Had I been born one like to thee. But see, thy mother will not leave thee, Mayst thou be aye by joy befriended, * The word zemzeme is applied to the purling of a brook, and similar soft, murmuring sounds. † In Eastern poetry words are compared to pearls strung on a thread. What we call the Sign of the Ram is in Turkish styled the Sign of the Lamb. OBITUARY. E. J. W. GIBB. mere sumptuousness. A paper on the readers THE last number of Timehri (vol. ii., párt 2), the journal of the agricultural and commercial society of British Guiana, contains at least three articles by the editor which we commend to all who have come under the fascination of his recent book, Among the Indians of British Guiana. There are also papers worth reading by Mr. Alexander Winter and Mr. J. E. Tinne. The elaborate Index deserves a word of praise, though it might perhaps have been better arranged. The English agent of Timehri is Mr. Edward Stanford. THE numbers of the Revista Contemporanea for February contain two archaeological papers of unequal merit. The first, "Inscripciones Antiguas en España," is a wild statement by Martin Minguez that the Keltiberian Inscriptions are Greek; the other is an anonymous account of a visit to Sasamon, the ancient Segisamum, in 1870. Traces of extensive ruins are described, and a long and curious Latin inscription is given, of which we can find no Another unaccount in Hübner's Corpus. signed article is an interesting, but too eulogistic, biography of the painter Esquivel, 1806-57. Alvarez Sereix prints three sumpBe-tuary proclamations regulating dress, conduct in processions, and use of fireworks in Madrid in 1660-70. Señor Dios de la Rada y Delgada gives a readable résumé of Pilgrimages to Mecca, but seems unacquainted with Mr. Keane's latest visit. RICHARD HENRY HORNE (for the familiar "Hengist was, it seems, a supposititious second name) died at Margate on March 13. He was born in the early years of the century, and both in his youth and in his mature age led a life of adventure beyond the seas. tween his hair-breadth escapes in America and his official employment in Australia there intervened a period of literary activity at home. Ambition, combined with originality-to use no harsher term-was stamped upon everything he wrote. All have heard of Orion, the epic published at the price of one farthing in 1843. Of several tragedies planned on classic models Cosmo de Medici is perhaps best known to the present generation. Many of his works have passed through several editions, though they cannot be said ever to have been popular. His name, however, will live in English literature by its association with that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She contributed several essays to the collection which he published in 1844 under the title of A New Spirit of the Age; a phrase of his is enshrined in her most pathetic poem, "The Cry of the Children;" and in 1877 he published in two volumes her letters to him, which form an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of her poetical aims. Horne leaves many unpublished works, and named Mr. Buxton Forman as his literary executor. MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. Le Livre for March (Fisher Unwin) opens with an interesting sketch by the Comte de Contades of the late Poulet-Malassis, which is accompanied by a well-etched portrait and (on the front page) by a pleasant encadrement representing no less than eight views of the printer's punning device, the coco malperché as Baudelaire somewhere has it, in a passage which, by-the-way, M. de Contades has not failed to quote. Poulet-Malassis was not a perfect character, but there is a singular charm about the books he published. Many publishers have followed his good ways, avoiding his evil ones; but hardly one has produced books of more individuality and elegance as distinguished from SELECTED FOREIGN BOOKS. GENERAL LITERATURE. CAGNAT, R. Explorations épigraphiques et archéologiques en Tunisie. 20 Fasc. Paris: Thorin. 7 fr. 50 c. DUMONT, A., et J. CHAPLAIN. Les Céramiques de la Grèce propre. 1re Partie. 2o Fasc. Vases peints. Paris: Firmin-Didot. 20 fr. DUPIN DE SAINT-ANDRÉ, A. Le Mexique aujourd'hui. ENGEL, G. Aesthetik der Tonkunst. Berlin: Besser. Paris: Plon. 3 fr. 50 c. 3 fr. 50 c. 8 M. LONGPERIER, A. de, Œuvres de, p. p. G. Schlumberger. MEYER, C. Der Aberglaube d. Mittelalters u, der nächstfolgenden Jahrhunderte. Basel: Schneider. 6 M. 40 Pf. MEYER, R. Die Principien der gerechten. Besteuerung in der neueren Finanzwissenschaft. Berlin: Besser. 8 M. RIBBE, Ch. de. Le Play d'après sa Correspondance. Paris: Firmin-Didot. 3 fr. 50 c. HISTORY. ANONYMI de situ orbis libri duo. E codice Leidensi nunc primum ed. M. Manitius. Stuttgart: Cotta. 5 M. HARTFELDER, K. Zur Geschichte d. Bauernkriegs in Südwestdeutschland. Stuttgart: Cotta. 8 M. IBACH, J. Der Kampf zwischen Papstthum . Königthum von Gregor VII bis Calixt II. Frankfurt-aM.: Foesser. 3 M. LAMANSKY, V. Secrets d'Etat de Venise. Documents: Servant à éclaircir les Rapports de la Seigneurie avec les Grecs, les Slaves et la Porte ottomane à la fin du 15° et au 16° Siècle. St. Petersburg. £1, T. 2. LEIST, F. Die Urkunde. Ihre Behandlg. u. Bearbeitg. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. Linz: Ebenhöch. 8 M. mann. 80 M. London: March 17, 1884. Folio edition of Shakspere's plays the editors, The fact that in the Dedication of the First Heminge and Condell, speak of the two brothers the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery as having sustained towards the great poet a relation somewhat closer than that of mere literary patrons would of itself suffice to give some interest to almost any fact connected with much greater if, in accordance with the view these noblemen. But the interest becomes taken by many Shaksperian scholars during the last half-century, we recognise in the Earl of Pembroke that young friend whose close intimacy with Shakspere is celebrated in the first series of sonnets (1 to 126). It is with these considerations in view that I would invite attention to some facts which I met with in the course of a recent research. These facts have, besides, a measure of historical importance; ANAGNOSTOPULOS, G. Tepl TĤs λativikĤs ¿titoμĤs Toû and, so far as I am aware, attention has not FISCH, C. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Chytridiaceen. 7 M. 50 Pf. kohlengebirges. Berlin: Ernst & Korn. 7 M. 50 Pf. STUDER, Th. Isopoden, gesammelt während der Reise S. M. S. Gazelle um die Erde 1874-76. Berlin: Dümmler. 2 M. 50 Pf. PHILOLOGY, ETC. Bapßápov. Jena: Pohle. 1 M. BLUDAU, A. Königsberg: De fontibus Frontini. Heyne. Leipzig: Hirzel. 2 M. PRITZEL, G., u. C. JESSEN. Die deutschen Volksnamen der Pflanzen. 2. Hälfte. Hannover: Cohen. 5 M. 75 Pf. RAYNAUD, G. 13° Siècles. been previously called to them. Goe, doe thine homage to thy Soveraigne, Sith late thine Eies did nought els entertaine." with the rebellion of Essex, or at least with cause "One Mrs. Martin, who dwelt at the Choppinge Knife, near Ludgate, tould me that she hath seene This document has no contemporary date. the Catalogue it is assigned to 1601; but it is dated in pencil October 1602, and this date must be approximately correct, since mention is made in it of the preparations for the attack on Geneva, which occurred in December 1602, As to the incident in Lord Pembroke's career, it is interesting to observe how fully it agrees with his being concerned in such an affair as that to which Sonnets 40, 144, al., relate, and with the grave warning which Shakspere thought it necessary to give in Sonnet 95. Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion. And it is worthy of observation also that having highly eulogised Pembroke, adds: 'He was immoderately given up to women.. ship, were not without apprehension that his And some, who were nearest his trust and friendnatural vivacity and vigour of mind began to decline by those excessive indulgences." in prison; and he was not banished from Court, Lord Pembroke did not, however, remain long Museum a letter written by him from Whiteas has been alleged, for there is in the British hall on May 8, 1601. This letter is to Mr. Michael Hicks, asking him to allow that the payment of a loan might be deferred and the securities renewed. To this same Mr. Hicks, or Hickes, Bacon was also, I believe, indebted for loans. As Pembroke was again at Whitehall, he may possibly have thought that the past was to be forgiven fully, if not forgotten. This, however, it would seem, was not to be. The date of Pembroke's letter is, however, important; for I am very strongly of opinion (though I cannot now state fully the grounds of this opinion) that it was just about this time, and after the release of Pembroke from prison, that there occurred that renewal of the intimacy with Shakspere to which Sonnets 100 to 126 relate. We may even see indications of the season of the year. Thus, in 107 (a sonnet which I take as alluding to the Queen's glory ing rebellion of Essex in the preceding Feb having come forth undimmed from the threaten ruary*), we read of "the drops of this most balmy time;" and, similarly, we find in 124 "That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers." mine are accepted or not, it will be admitted, But whether these conclusions of I think, that the facts to which I have directed attention are of some considerable importance. London: March 19, 1884. Marco Polo tells how the Great Kaan's envoys to Madagascar, or, rather, probably to East Africa, brought back to their master a feather of the ruc, "which was stated to measure ninety spans, whilst the quill part was two palms in circumference-a marvellous object! These marvellous ruc's quills are also spoken of in various Arabic stories extracted by M. Marcel Devic from a work of the tenth century called 'Ajaib al-Hind (Mirabilia Indiae), which is now being published completely at Leyden, in Arabic and French, by M. van der Lith and M. Marcel Devic. A French Jesuit of the seventeenth century, quoted by Ludolf, also speaks of having seen these quills of the greater condor, as he calls them, brought from South Central Africa "between could hardly be but that these various testiMonomotapa and the kingdom of Angola." It monies, however loose, referred to some real object. I suggested that this might possibly have been some vegetable production, such as *To Mr. G. Massey is due, I believe, the credit of having first recognised in the "mortal moon a figurative allusion, in accordance with the usage of Elizabethan poets, to the Queen; but both he and Prof. Minto suppose (erroneously, as I think) In that the allusion is to her death, = a great frond of the Ravenala (Urania speciosa) cooked to pass as a ruc's quill (Marco Polo, first edition, ii. 354; second edition, ii. 414). Mr. Sibree, in his excellent book on Madagascar (The Great African Island, 1880) noticed this, but said: "It is much more likely that they [the ruc's quills] were the immensely long midribs of the leaves of the rofia palm. These are from twenty to thirty feet long, and are not at all unlike an enormous quill stripped of the feathering portion" (p. 55). In another passage he describes the palm, Sagus ruffia (raphia): "The rofia has a trunk of from thirty to fifty feet in height, and at the head divides into seven or eight immensely long leaves. The midrib of these leaves is a very strong, but extremely light and straight pole.... These poles are often twenty feet or more in length, and the leaves proper consist of a great number of fine and long pinnate leaflets, set at right angles to the midrib, from eighteen to twenty inches long, and about one and a-half broad," &c. (pp. 74, 75). When Sir John Kirk came home in 1881-82 I spoke to him on the subject, and he felt confident that the rofia or raphia palm-fronds were the original of the ruc's quills. He also kindly volunteered to send me a specimen on his return to Zanzibar. This he did not forget, and some time there arrived at the India Office not one, but four of these ruc's quills. In the letter which announced this despatch Sir John ago says: "I send to-day per s.s. Arcot . . . four fronds of the Raphia palm, called here 'Moale.' They are just as sold and shipped up and down the coast. No doubt they were sent in Marco Polo's time in exactly the same state—i.e., stripped of their leaflets, and with the tip broken off. They are used for making stages and ladders, and last long if kept dry. They are also made into doors, by being cut into lengths, and pinned through. The stages are made of three, like tripods, and used for picking cloves from the higher branches." the wings of a great bird. Sir John Kirk writes that this (which he does not describe particularly) was in the possession of the Roman Catholic priests at Bagamoyo, to whom it had been given by natives of the interior, who declared that they had brought it from Tanganyika, and that it was part of the wing of a gigantic bird. On another occasion they repeated this statement, alleging that this bird was known in the Udoe () country near the coast. These priests were able to communicate directly with their informants, and certainly believed the story. Dr. Hildebrand also, a competent German naturalist, believed in it. But Sir John Kirk himself says that "what the priests had to show was most undoubtedly the whalebone of a comparatively small whale." Forestry Exhibition at Edinburgh. The rophia midribs will be sent to the H. YULE. The largest of the four midribs sent (they do not differ much) is twenty-five feet four inches long, measuring twelve inches in girth at the butt, and five inches at the upper end. I calculate that if it originally came to a point the whole length would be forty-five feet, but, as this would not be so, we may estimate it as thirty-five to forty feet. The thick part is deeply hollowed on the upper (?) side, leaving the section of the solid butt in form a thick crescent. The leaflets are all gone, but when entire the object must have strongly resembled a Brobdingnagian feather. Compare this description with that of Padre Bolivar in Ludolf, referred to above: "In aliquibus. . . regionibus vidi pennas alae istius avis prodigiosae, licet avem non viderim. Penna illa, prout ex formâ colligebatur, erat ex mediocribus, longitudine 28 palmorum, latitudine trium. Calamus vero a radice usque ad extremi tatem longitudine quinque palmorum, deusitatis instar brachii moderati, robustissimus erat et durus. Pennulae inter se aequales et bene compositae, ut vix ab invicem nisi cum violentià divellerentur. Colore erant valdè nigro, calamus colore albo" (Ludolfi, ad suam Hist. Aethiop., Comment., p. 164). The last particular, as to colour, I am not able to explain; the others correspond well. The palmus in this passage may be anything from nine to ten inches. I see this tree is mentioned by Capt. R. F. Burton in his volume on the Lake Regions (vol. xxix. of the Journal of the Royal Gens graphical Society, p. 34), and probably by many other travellers. . I ought to mention here that some other object has been shown at Zanzibar as part of "The raphia, here called the Devil's date,' is celebrated as having the largest tent in the Vegetable kingdom," &c. Lacerda's journey he calls it Raphia vinifera, In his translation of FRIAR TUCK. London: March 12, 1884. In my letters on the name of Robin Hood (ACADEMY, September 15 and December 8, 1883) I endeavoured to prove that this hero of popular tradition inherited his name, and some portion of his story, from the wood-sprite Hód, a degraded form of the " hood"-wearing god Woden. I now propose to show that another of the personages of the same ballad cycle may not improbably have derived his name in like manner from the Northern mythology. It is well known that Robin Hood is one of the many persons respecting whom tradition relates the old-world story of the archer and the apple, which is most familiar to us in its associawith every detail complete, in the ballad of tion with William Tell. This story is also told, William of Cloudeslee, whose adventures throughout are almost precisely identical with those of Hood. The Scandinavian form of this legend, as given by Saxo Grammaticus, corresponds exactly with the Tell and the Cloudeslee versions, and has for its hero a certain Toko. Saxo, who treats Odin and Baldr in euhemerist fashion, makes Toko one of the warriors of King Harald Gormsson in the tenth century. The Icelandic sagas relate the life of this Toki (or Pálna-Tóki, as they call him) at great length; but the account they give is full of historical impossibilities, and there is strong reason to suspect that Tóki is a purely mythological creation. not be greatly surprised if we meet with this Assuming this suspicion to be correct, we canpersonage on English ground. to have traces of Tóki in the Toccansceaga of the Cod. Dipl., and in the modern names Tockwith, Tockholes, and Tuckwood. There remains the question why Tuck is designated as a friar. Three answers to this question suggest themselves to me as possible. (1) It seems likely that the mythic name of Tuck, like that of Hood, was popularly conferred on some historical outlaw; and this person may actually have been a friar. (2) The costume in which Tuck was presented in the Robin Hood play may accidentally have resembled a friar's dress. (3) The word Friar may be a corruption of some Scandinavian kenning or distinctive nickname. According to Saxo, Tóki was celebrated not only for his prowess as an archer, but also for his skill in the use of snow-shoes. The name Pálna-Tóki is doubtfully explained by Dr. Vigfusson as meaning "Toki the archer." May not FrerTóki (frost-Tóki") have been the designation of this hero in his other character? In my former letters I showed reasons for supposing that the Tell incident is foreign to the original character of the myth of Hód, and must have been added to it after "Robin Hood" had come to be regarded as a merely human personage. If this be so, it follows that before that time English tradition must have attributed to some other hero the exploit which is the subject of this common Aryan legend. I venture to suggest that the earlier English hero of the episode may have been none other than Tóki, under the scarcely altered name of Tuck. It is true that no existing English legend ascribes this incident to Friar Tuck; but, when the scattered traditions of the forest champions it would be natural that so brilliant an achievement should be attributed to the famous leader of the outlaw band, rather than to the subor dinate member to whom it may properly have belonged. The author of the Cloudeslee ballad seems simply, in this as in all other points, to have copied the traditional history of Robin had been consolidated into a connected story, Hood. It is further to be noted that while the name of Höd appears in the Hodes uc and Hodesuid of Kemble's charters, and in the modern placenames enumerated in my first letter, we seem HENRY BRADLEY. DANTE'S "FONTE BRANDA." Siena: March 5, 1884. One touch of Dante's pen has made the Fonte Branda of Siena famous for more than five hundred years. "Per Fonte Branda non darei la vista." Inf. canto xxx. But of late one writer after another has set up a rival fountain to dispute this heritage of renown. The process has been in every case the sameviz., that Maestro Adamo da Brescia, in his fiery torments, would most naturally remember the cooling waters of the place where he sinned, "del luogo ov' io peccai.' "Ivi è Romena dov' io falsai ;" and there is the other Fonte Branda, to which the Senesi, most "vain" of all peoples, as Dante affirmed, must now cede their honourable pretension with a bitter regret. Indisputable sound the words of the poet:"Li ruscelletti che de' verdi colli Del Casentin, discendon giuso in Arno, Mr. Augustus Hare, in his Cities of North and Central Italy, is not particularly tender to the belief and tradition of many centuries when he says the fountain of Siena has often been "con fused in guide-books" with the Fonte Branda in the Casentino. If he can point to Fraticelli, (and as a matter of fact he cites no authority Ampère, and Forsyth in support of his assertion whatever), on the other side stand Niccolò Tommaséo, Gabriele Rossetti, and Barlow, who firmly cling to the greater celebrity of the Siena fountain, and admit no doubts. I am sorry that the single volume of Giuliani now at my disposal gives me no knowledge of his ripe judgment. Opinion is thus apparently equally divided among modern commentators. But another unsuspected voice has yet to be heard on this question, and, if you will allow me, I will interpret it. In the library of Siena is a most interesting work, contained in two thick volumes, entitled the "Diario Sanese" of Girolamo Gigli, a poet, patrician, and chronicler of Siena, who died at Rome in 1722. On p. 20 we read: "The Contrada of Fonte Branda takes its name from the ancient family of the Brandi, who built extensively in it, and especially in 1217 the cele buildings, of which Dante made mention." brated fountain that supplies water to numerous Again on p. 41 he writes: "In 1342 water was first brought into Fonte Branda amidst great rejoicings in Siena, of which Dante makes lodevol menzione." For the latter statement he refers in the margin to an ancient Chronicle of Siena by Agnolo di Tura, recording events occurring between 1186 and 1352. On examination |