From Grave to Gay: a Volume of Selections from the Complete Poems of H. CholmondeleyPennell. (Longmans.) The popularity of Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell's volumes of light verse (even though that popularity was largely due to the illustrations) fully justifies him in issuing the present selection, which is illustrated only with a portrait of the author-poet we may not truthfully call him. The book is a pleasant one both to read and to handle, except that the paper is somewhat too thick for our taste. NOTES AND NEWS. WE hear that the Council at Cambridge have resolved unanimously to offer to Prof. George Stephens, of Copenhagen, the honorary degree of Doctor in Letters. The same degree has been given in regular course during this week to Mr. H. A. J. Munro, Mr. J. Peile, and Mr. Henry Jackson; but the present is the first occasion on which this newly instituted degree has been used to confer distinction upon a stranger. The time could not have been better chosen, when Prof. Stephens has crowned the labour of a lifetime by bringing out the third and last volume of his Old Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, together with a popular handbook on the same subject, which he may be said almost to have created. AT Cambridge also this week the Rev. Mandell Creighton (for whom Oxford unhappily had no vacant place) has been appointed to the new Professorship of Ecclesiastical History; and Mr. E. W. Gosse (who has no university of his own to reward him) has been elected by Trinity College to the Lectureship in English Literature vacant by the resignation of Mr. Leslie Stephen, who probably wishes to reserve himself entirely for his great English Biographical Dictionary, of which we hope to see the first-fruits by the autumn. CAPT. R. F. BURTON is, we hear, putting the last touches to his translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The first volume (fifty nights) is already copied, and the whole can be prepared for print within a year. The version was begun some thirty years ago in conjunction with the late Dr. T. F. Steinhalneer, of Aden. It will try to do justice to one of the most interesting of anthropological and ethnographical works, by being a verbatim et literatim copy of the original, preserving all its technique, such as the divisions of the nights and the naïve and child-like plain-speaking of the Arabic-a perfect contrast with the English of the present day. Of course, it will be printed, not published, and the issue will be limited to subscribers. MR. ELLIOT STOCK announces for publication a volume on Church Bells, by Mr. J. C. L. Stahlschmidt, a past-Master of the Founders' Company, who has devoted his spare time for some years to accumulating information as He to the early bell-founders of London. now gives the result of his labours in the first part of the book, the second part of which will be devoted to an account of the bells of Surrey. The title will be Surrey Bells and London BellFounders. Much new and interesting information is promised from sources hitherto entirely unworked, especially the Corporation Records at Guildhall. MESSRS. HURST & BLACKETT will shortly publish two three-volume novels-Gaythorne Hall, by John M. Fothergill, and Venus' Doves, by Ida Ashworth Taylor. MESSRS. W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & Co. will publish very shortly a novel by Mr. Ulick J. Burke, entitled Couleur de Rose. A NEW edition of Murray's Handbook to France, part ii., is going through the press. Many interesting and valuable additions have been made, notably with regard to the Morvan, the Jura, Franche-Comté generally, and the Vosges-regions little known, and yet so interesting to travellers in search of the picturesque. New plans have also been added, and many additions made to the Index. WE understand that the work entitled My Bible, which Canon Boyd Carpenter, Bishopdesignate of Ripon, recently contributed to the "Heart Chords series, has already passed into a second edition, while the same author's "Commentary on the Revelation," contributed to Bishop Ellicott's Bible Commentary, which has been reprinted in a separate volume, is now in its third edition. "The Conflict of MR. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON has a long article in the May number of the English Law Magazine and Review, on Jurisdiction between the English and Scotch Courts," with special reference to the OrrEwing case. MR. E. J. W. GIBB'S translation from the Turkish of "The Story of Jewad," which we have before announced as to be published by subscription through Messrs. Wilson & M'Cormick of Glasgow, will be ready for distribution in the course of next month. The price is seven shillings. THE June number of the Antiquarian Magazine will contain a continuation of Mr. J. H. Round's paper on the vexed question of "Port and Port-reeve." MR. BEHRAMJI M. MALABARI goes on steadily with his great undertaking of having Prof. Max Müller's Hibbert Lectures "On the Origin and Growth of Religion" translated into the principal vernaculars of India. In addition to the Guzerathi and Maráthi translations which we noticed some time ago, we have now received the translation into Bengali. The translation in this case is the work of Rajanikanta Gupta, the author of the History of the Great Sepoy THE June number of Sunday Talk will conWar, Studies in Indian History, &c. The ex- tain the opening chapter of a new story by pense of the publication seems to have been Mrs. Oliphant, entitled "Elinor; "" an account entirely defrayed by the Maharani Shurnomaye. of "Another Carlyle Shrine," by Shirley; a A Bengali translation of Prof. Max Müller's paper by Prof. Nichol on last work, India, what can it Teach us? is like-man;" and a poem by Prof. Blackie. wise advertised. A RECORD of the public life of Sir Henry Cole will shortly be published by Messrs. G. Bell & Sons. The story of his association with the Prince Consort in the successful inauguration of the Exhibition of 1851, and of his subsequent connexion with the Department of Science and Art at the South Kensington Museum, will give the book an exceptional interest. "" A Broad Church THE annual general meeting of the Education Society will take place on Thursday, May 29, at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, at 8 p.m., when the president, the Rev. Dr. H. M. Butler, will deliver his address. THE following is the official return of the results of the L.L.A. examination of 1884 at the University of St. Andrews:-In Latin 11 passed; in mathematics 4; in logic 12, and 2 with honours; in moral philosophy 4; in English literature 57, and 57 with honours; in natural philosophy 1; in education 47, and 16 with honours; in political economy 10, and 3 with honours; in French 45, and 37 with honours; in German 31, and 17 with honours; in Italian 1; in comparative philology 30, and 1 with honours; in history 34, and 11 with honours; in chemistry 3; in physiology 35, and 2 with honours; in botany 22, and 4 with honours; in zoology 2; in geology 10, and 9 with honours; in Church history 1; and in Hebrew 1. Of the 363 candidates who entered, 81 have gained the title. The Committee of Senators have been empowered to draw up a scheme by which the honours standard may be raised in future, either by adding to the number of subjects necessary for honours, or by making certain important subjects obligatory, so as to bring the qualification nearer to the full M.A. degree. THE sixteenth annual meeting of the Society for the Encouragement of Home Study was held in London during three days last week. The examiners reported on the work done by the young ladies during the year, and awarded the prizes. Fresh papers of questions on literature, theology, arithmetic, German, and household hygiene were given. Applications for admission should be made to the hon. sec retary, Miss A. C. Moore, Eltham. CAPITANE DUVOISIN has begun in the number of the Revue des Basses-Pyrénées des Landes a series of folk-lore legends, collected about 1830, which promises to be very valuable. The Basque text is given, with a French translation. ORIGINAL VERSE. TWO MEDIAEVAL STUDENT SONGS. The Lover's Monologue. Love rules everything that is: Love doth change hearts in a kiss: Love seeks devious ways of bliss: Love than honey sweeter, Love than gall more bitter. Blind Love hath no modesties. Love is lukewarm, hot and cold; Love is timid, over-bold; Loyal, treacherous, manifold. Present time is fit for play: Let Love find his mate to-day: Hark, the birds, how sweet their lay Love rules young men wholly; Love lures maidens solely: Woe to old folk, sad are they! Sweetest woman ever seen, Fairest, dearest, is my queen; And, alas, my chiefest teen! Let an old man, chill and drear, Never come thy bosom near; Oft he sleeps with sorry cheer, Too cold to delight thee: Naught could less invite thee. Youth with youth must mate, my dear. Blest the union I desire; Naught I know, and naught require, In this closed room Love takes flight; To Flower o' the Thorn. The blithe young year is upward steering; If Flower o' the thorn be not my cheer. I with her love am thralled and taken, Whose flower doth flower, bud, bloom, and waken; mina Burana. twelfth century. inequalities of the territorial tax in Spain, pointing out confusions and abuses rather than suggesting remedies. Charro-Hidalgo y Diaz gives a eulogistic review of José María de Pereda, the best novelist of the Asturias and of Northern Spain. Becerro de Bengoa describes, in an interesting paper, the subterranean canal of Orbo, by which the waters of a coal mine, once a danger and expense, have been utilised, by the engineer Señor Zuaznavar, for a canal upwards of a mile in length, which conveys the coal to the nearest station, for the traction of the boats, and for working the ventilation-at a cost of only £10,000. TENNYSON ON "THE PRINCESS." MR. E. S. DAWSON, of Montreal, has brought out a new edition of his study of "The Princess," prefaced by the following letter from the Poet Laureate, which we reprint from the Critic: "DEAR SIR,-I thank you for your able and thoughtful essay on 'The Princess.' You have seen, amongst other things, that if women ever were to play such freaks, the burlesque and the tragic might go hand-in-hand. I may tell you that the songs were not an after-thought. Before the first edition came out, I deliberated with myself whether I should put songs in between the separate divisions of the poem. Again, I thought, the poem will explain itself; but the public did not see that the child, as you say, was the heroine of the piece, and at last I conquered my laziness MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. and inserted them. You would be still more certain Belgravia, noticeable from month to month that the child was the true heroine if, instead of for Mrs. Cashel Hoey's suggestive and interest- the first song as it now stands, As thro' the land ing novel "The Lover's Creed," is this month at eve we went,' I had printed the first song which doubly worth attention, for it contains an eight-sitting on the bank of a river, and playing with I wrote, 'The losing of the child.' The child is page story of great power and pregnancy-flowers-a flood comes down-a dam has been Miss Clementina Black's "Moonlight and Floods." THE Deutsche Rundschau has some "Studies on Goethe," by Herr Wilhelm Scherer, which are all to the point and deal with definite problems concerning Goethe's writings. Herr von Sarburg begins an appreciative study of "Alessandro Manzoni," and Herr Curtius gives a pretty sketch of "Athens and Eleusis." IN the Revue historique M. de Grammont begins a series of "Etudes algériennes" which are likely to be of general interest. The first is a careful study of the rise and activity up to modern times of the Algerian Corsairs-a subject frequently alluded to, but little understood. M. R. Hammond publishes some documents bearing on the relations between France and Prussia from 1763 to 1769, the period of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations after the Seven Years' War. THE Theologisch Tijdschrift for May (a double number) gives a varied choice of subjects, ranging from Mr. Spencer's and Mr. Green's philosophy (Hugenholtz) to the genesis of the narratives respecting Aaron (Oort), the relation of John the Baptist and his disciples to Christianity (Hockstra), the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Mayboom), and the origin of the Eucharist (Bealage). The second and larger half of Green's Prolegomena to Ethics is considered to be a more vigorous defence of the author's standpoint than the first. With the reserve indicated, Dr. Hugenholtz ranks the book among the most valuable fruits of recent philosophic thought. IN the Revista Contemporanea for April, Rodriguez Villa begins a valuable History of the campaign of the Archduke Leopold in Flanders in 1617; the present chapters carry the account down to the surrender of Armentières, May 30. Don Ramon L. de Vicuña treats of "The Subject of History," which is defined as "the relations of man to God, to nature, and to his fellows." Señor Barzanallana discusses the broken thro' the child is borne down by the flood-the whole village distracted-after a time the flood has subsided-the child is thrown safe and sound again upon the bank, and all the women are in raptures. I quite forget the words of the ballad, but I think I may have it somewhere. "Your explanatory notes are very much to the purpose, and I do not object to your finding parallelisms. They must always recur. A man Ja Chinese scholar) some time ago wrote to me saying that in an unknown, untranslated Chinese poem, there were two whole lines of mine, almost word for word. Why not? Are not human eyes all over the world looking at the same objects, and must there not consequently be coincidences of thought and impressions and expressions? It is scarcely possible for anyone to say or write anything in this late time of the world to which, in the rest of the literature of the world, a parallel could not somewhere be found. But when you say that this passage or that was suggested by Wordsworth or Shelley or another, I demur, and more, I wholly disagree. There was a period in my life when, as an artist, Turner for instance, takes rough sketches of landskip, &c., in order to work them eventually into some great picture, so I was in the habit of chronicling, in four or five words or more, whatever might strike me as picturesque in nature. I never put these down, and many and many a line has gone away on the north wind, but some remain-e.g., 'A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight.' Suggestion: The sea when Torquay was the most lovely sea-village in one night at Torquay, England, tho' now a smoky town. The sky was covered with thin vapour, and the moon was behind it. 'A great black cloud Drag inward from the deep.' Suggestion: A coming storm seen from the top of Snowdon. In the 'Idylls of the King': 'With all Its stormy crests that smote against the skies.' Suggestion: A storm which came upon us in the middle of the North Sea. 'As the water-lily starts and slides.' Suggestion: Water-lilies in my own pond, seen Suggestion: I was walking in the New Forest. A wind did arise and 'Shake the songs the whispers and the shrieks The wind, I believe, was a west-wind, but, be- "I have known an old fish-wife, who had lost tide on a stormy day and cry out-Ay! roar, do! two sons at sea, clench her fist at the advancing how I hates to see thee show thy white teeth!" Now if I had adopted her exclamation and put it into the mouth of some old woman in one of my poems, I dare say the critics would have thought it original enough, but would most likely have advised me to go to nature for my old women and not to my own imagination, and indeed it is a strong figure. Here is another little anecdote about suggestion: When I was about twenty or twentyone I went on a tour to the Pyrenees. Lying among these mountains before a waterfall that comes down one thousand or twelve hundred feet, I sketched it (according to my custom then) in these words: Slow-dropping veils of thinnest When I printed this a critic informed me that lawn' was the material used in theatres to imitate a waterfall, and graciously added, 'Mr. T. should not go to the boards of a theatre but to nature herself for his suggestions.' And I had gone to nature herself. I think it is a moot point whether, if I had known how that effect was produced on the stage, I should have ventured to publish the line. lawn.' I find that I have written, quite contrary to my custom, a letter, when I had merely intended to thank you for your interesting commentary. Thanking you again for it, I beg you to believe me very faithfully yours, "A. TENNYSON. "Aldworth, Haslemere, Surrey, Nov. 21st, 1882. "PS.-By-the-by, you are wrong about 'the tremulous isles of light; they are 'isles of light,' spots of sunshine coming through the leaves, and seeming to slide from one to the other, as the prothe 'beard-blown' goat involves a sense of the cession of girls 'moves under shade.' And surely ruined pillar." wind blowing the beard on the height of the GUIZOT, M., Lettres de, à sa Famille et à ses Amis mythology, however, are not the same; and, if recueillies par Mime de Witt. Paris: Hachette. 3 fr. 50 c. MALOT, Hector. Marichette. Paris: Dentu. 6 fr. MARIO, A., Scritti scelti e curati da Giosuè Carducci. Vol. I. Bologna: Zanichelli. 5 L. T. 9. Paris: Quantin. 10 fr. nos Jours. Paris: Palmé. 30 fr. HISTORY, ETC. CAVALLARI, S. e C., e A. HOLM. Topografia archeo- feld Huber. 1 M. 60 Pf. FLEISCHFRESSER, W. FENNER, H. Zwingli als Patriot u. Politiker. Frauenburgs in der Zeit d. dreissigjährigen Krieges. II. Die politische Stellung Ham 1627-29. Hamburg: Jenichen. 1 M. FUCHS, C. Geschichte d. Kaisers L. Septimius Severus. Wien: Konegen. 3 M. GILLES, J. Les Voies romaines et massiliennes dans le Département des Bouches-du-Rhone. Paris LALLEMEND, M., et A. BOINETTE. Jean Errard, de Bar-le-Duc, premier Ingénieur du très chrestien Thorin. 7 fr. 50 c. Roy de France et de Navarre Henry IV. Paris: PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. BOUILLIER, F. Etudes familières de Psychologie et de Morale. Paris: Hachette. 3 fr. 50 c. HOPPE-SEYLER, F. Ueb. die Entwickelung der physiologischen Chemie u. ihre Bedeutung f. die Medicin. Rede. Strassburg: Träbner. 1 M. LEHMANN, F. X. Einführung in die MolluskenFauna d. Grossherzogt. Baden. Karlsruhe: Braun. 2 M. 80 Pf. LUNDSTROEM, A. N. Pflanzenbiologische Studien. I. Die Anpassungen der Pflanzen an Regen u. Thau. PACHER, D., u. M. Frhr. v. JABORNEGG. Flora v. some of our conclusions are similar, it is because we have drawn from common sources, more especially Prof. Max Müller. But the incorrectness of his reference to my book makes me doubt whether Sir George Cox has not confounded my work with some other. 2. The statement that I have charged Herodotos with making himself responsible for the truth of the tale of the phoenix, whereas he distinctly disclaims all responsibility" for it, has been borrowed by Sir George Cox (and Prof. Jebb) from Mr. Verrall. Mr. Verrall, however, never took the trouble to look at my note on the passage, or even my previous reference to the fact on p. xxii. of the Introduction. Had he done so, he and his followers would never have confounded the legend about the from others, with the tale of the phoenix, which phoenix, which Herodotos tells us he derived the Greek writer gives on his own authority. The same tale had been already told by Hekataeos, the authenticity of whose fragments has been long ago proved by Wiedemann against the doubts of the Continental critics which have been reproduced in the Edinburgh Review. I imagined (wrongly, as it seems) that Herodotean critics in this country were acquainted with the results of the discussion. Now, as Wiedemann remarks in regard to the phoenix (Geschichte Aegyptens, p. 86), "It is impossible to assume that Hekataeos and Herodotos, whose visits to Egypt were separated by so many years, could both have received the same false information to their enquiries about things perfectly well known in Egypt; they must both related the same tale, and the copyist can rather have copied the one from the other, since only have been Herodotos." This proof of my "unfairness" to Herodotos, which is singled out by Sir George Cox, is a however it may have arisen, had become quite senseless, was, when Thompson wrote, falling into disuse, and in 1845 the then Mayor of Cork by proclamation forbade its continuance. Mr. Halli. well (Nursery Rhymes, ed. 2, p. 248) notices the same practice in the Isle of Man, and gives the words there sung; while on February 4, 1846 (as of that month), Mr. Crofton Croker drew attention appears by the Literary Gazette, p. 131, of the 7th to the subject at a meeting of the British Archaeo. logical Association, and it was stated that a similar custom existed in Pembrokeshire, where, on Twelfth Day, a wren was carried from house to house in a box with glass windows, surmounted by a wheel to which ribbons were hung. Sonnini (Voyage dans la Haute et la Basse Egypte, i, p. 18 mentions a like ceremony practised a century ago, towards the end of December, at La Ciotat, near armed with swords and pistols, and their victim Marseilles, but there the wren's murderers were load, on the shoulders of two men, who paraded was slung to a pole borne, as if it were a heary the village, and then, after gravely weighing it in a pair of scales, all [present] gave themselves up to festivity. 1. Thl. 2. Abth. Klagenfurt: v. Klein-/ good sample of the criticism with which my golden-crested wren, in most European languages, PHILOLOGY, ETC. CESARI, P. Storia della Musica antica. Milan: Ricordi. 3 L. DE CARA, C. Esame critico del Sistema filologico e linguistico applicata alla Mitologia e alla Scienza delle Religioní. Prato: Giachetti. 6 L. MUELLER'S, K. O., Geschichte der griechischen gesetzt v. E. Heitz. 2. Bd. 2. Hälfte. Stuttgart: Heitz. 6 M. "HUNTING THE WREN." Magdalene College, Cambridge: May 16, 1884. Literatur bis auf das Zeitalter Alexanders. Fort- ing subject has attracted notice once more, for I am very glad to see that this very interestI am sure that much light has to be thrown upon it before it can be understood. Permit me here to reproduce the following extracts from the history of the species as given in the VIERKE, R. De un particulae cum in licativo con- fourth edition of Yarrell's British Birds (vol. i., SCHMEISSER, G. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Technik der etruskischen Haruspices. I. Zur Erklärg. u. Deutg. der Prodigien. Landsberg-a-W.: Schaeffer. 1 M. junctae usu antiquiore. Pars 2. Schleiz: Lämmel, 1 M. CORRESPONDENCE. SIR GEORGE COX ON THE RETORT OF Queen's College, Oxford: May 17, 1881. Sir George Cox's letter in the last number of the ACADEMY admits of an easy reply. ago. 1. There is only one chapter, not "chapters," on "Comparative Philology and the Science of Religion," not " "Myths and Mythology," in my Introduction to the Science of Language. I cannot have plagiarised from Sir George Cox in this, as when the chapter was written I had not read a page of his book. If I have plagiarised from anyone, it is from myself, in my Principles of Comparative Philology, published eleven years Sir George Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations remained known to me only by name until my Introduction was passing through the press and I was preparing a list of selected works for recommendation to the student. As I then found that it contained a good deal of what seemed to me to be questionable matter, I added a note of warning as regards the use of it. On p. 570 of the new edition of his book I observe that Sir George Cox does not accuse me of copying from him-a charge, indeed, which he could not sustain-but only of arriving at similar conclusions. Our theories of comparative "It is for antiquaries to throw light on the origin of this widely spread custom, of which many It has been ascribed to a wren which, alighting on unsatisfactory explanations have been attempted. a drumhead, roused and saved from defeat some seventeenth century. Others refer it to a similar Protestant troops in the Irish civil wars of the incident some centuries earlier in the wars of the Danish occupation of Ireland. Others say that the wren was an object of so great veneration to the 'Druids' that the early Christian missionaries enjoined its persecution upon all adherents of the new faith. Any speculations would here be futile, though one cannot but be struck by some coincidences. The wren, in the first line of the Irish song, is called the king of birds. The Pembroke. shire ceremony was, or is, performed on Twelfth Day-the feast of the Three Kings-and the bird was also spoken of as the king. The common name of the bird, shared to some extent with the Basiliskos, Regulus, Reyezuelo, Reatino, Roitelet, Za könig, Ellekonge, Winterkoninkje, and so forth-all assign to it the kingly dignity. These names probably are connected with the old and wellknown fable of birds choosing for their king that one of them which should mount highest in the ready to do him homage, when a loud burst of air. This the eagle seemed to do, and all were song was heard, and perched upon the eagle's head was the exultant wren, which, unseen and unfelt, had been borne aloft by the giant. In England far from ascribing royal qualities to our little the story does not seem to have had hold, and, so favourite, it is nearly everywhere known to us by the humbler name of 'Kitty' or 'Jenny' Wren." "The curious custom of 'hunting the wren' has Some parts of the foregoing extracts may be been mentioned by many writers, but little can be added to the accounts of it given by the late Sir it new to the readers of the ACADEMY; and to me Henry Ellis in his notes to Brand's Popular Antiquities (ii., p. 516), and by Thompson [Nat. Hist. Ireland, Birds, i., pp. 319.52]; though, from its practice obtaining in countries far apart, it is most likely of much greater antiquity than has been often supposed. It seems to have been first noticed by Charles Smith in his State of the County of Cork (ii., p. 334, note), published in 1750, as followed in the South of Ireland, and subsequently by Vallancey (Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, iv., No. 13, P. 97). On Christmas Day boys and men, each to fling at the bird-went out in a body to hunt using two sticks-one to beat the bushes, the other and kill the wren, which, from its habit of making but short flights, was no doubt soon done to death. On the following day-the feast of St. Stephenthe dead bird, hung by the legs between two hoops, crossed at right angles and decked with ribbons, was carried about by the 'wren-boys,' who sang a song, beginning Droeilin, Drocilin, ri ant-eum' (that is, Wren, Wren, king of birds'), and begged money to bury the wren.* This ceremony, which, pp. 465, 466): 6 "To Mr. Norman Moore the editor is indebted for the Erse words of the song above quoted. In Character, &c. (i, pp. 23-25), the entire English Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's Ireland: its Scenery, version, as sung in the county Cork, is given, together with the musical notes of the time." would be a great satisfaction if anyone could Point to any reasonable explanation of this very curious and doubtless very ancient custom, for such must be deemed one that, without reasonable cause assigned, extends from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of St. George's Channel. ALFRED NEWTON. THE "SWINBEORG" OF KING ALFRED'S WILL. Weston-super-Mare: May 15, 1884. In King Alfred's will (Pauli, Life of Alfred, p. 409), we find that an arrangement as to the destiny of certain lands was made by Ethelred and Alfred at a Witenagemote at Swinbeorg. Has this place been identified? I had conjectured that the name is found in that of Swanborough hundred in Wilts; but I was In Mr. G. Laurence Gomme's Primitive Folkunaware till a few days since of the exact spot. Moots (Sampson Low, 1880) I read (p. 108):— by the side of the road between Woodborough "The Rev. R. Nicholson kindly informs me that ford Bruce, is a hillock on which grow two or and Pewsey, Wilts, and in the parish of Manningthree ash-trees of no great age, but which may possibly spring from the site of an old tree. It is called 'Swanborough Tump,' or 'Swanborough Ashes. The name of the hundred is Swanborough ; and within the memory of an old man, who died a few years ago, courts used to be held there." Where is the original register of Alfred's Abbey at Winchester containing the will? That part of the MS. is said to be of about the date of 1028. It would be interesting to ascertain the exact reading. But surely the Swinbeorg where Ethelred and Alfred stood must be Swanborough Tump, and from that important moot-hill the hundred took its name. Lands and Oxidation," V., by Prof. Dewar. 8 p.m. Educational: Presidential Address, by the Rev. Dr. H. Montagu Butler. Architecture in India," by Mr. C. Purdon Clarke. scopical Geology," III., by Prof. Bonney. very remarkable document which I here print, with a translation, is one of the title-deeds of Westminster." It did not follow from this statement that Westminster was the present resting-place of the original. More than one enquirer has failed to trace it. After Kemble, Mr. Thorpe printed it in his Diplomatarium (1865) with this note:-" Unfortunately, I have not been successful in finding the MÍS., notwithstanding the good-will of authorities at Westminster." This uncertainty the of Alfred at Bedwin, Pewsey, and Alton passed SATURDAY, May 31, 3p.m. Royal Institution: "Micro- is now dissipated; among the facsimiles of by his will to his eldest son and heir, Edward, and these doubtless contained within their bounds this very Swanborough Tump. FUNERAL SURVIVALS IN SOUTH-WEST FRANCE. every prayer; while fire itself seems to constitute the essential part the cross-roads at the death of Louis XIV. Of analogous survivals in South-west France, the saint whose image was placed at the end of bridges in Guyenne was invoked to preside at a birth. Witness the well-known hymn sung by Jean d'Albret at the birth of Henri IV.: "Nousté-Dame deü cap deü poun." The latest writer on the Basques, l'abbé Haristoy, the first volume only of whose Recherches historiques sur le Pays-basque (Bayonne, 1883) has appeared, admits that his former parishioners in La Soule practise a kind of obscure worship of trees in times of trouble. Of the worship of stones, of offerings and prayers addressed in caves and holes to fairies, I have known instances both among Basques and Gascons; and older documents contain traces of many other similar survivals of former religions. WENTWORTH WEBSTER. APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. MONDAY, May 26, 8 p.m. Society of Arts: Cantor Lec ture, Fermentation and Distillation," III., by Prof. W. Noel Hartley. TUESDAY, May 27, 3 p.m. Royal Institution: "The Physiology of Nerve and Muscle," IV., by Prof. 8pm. Anthropological: "Remains from Cemeteries in the Island of Antiparos," by Mr. Theodore Bent; "The Koeboes of Sumatra," by Mr. H. O. Forbes; The Osteology of the Koeb:es of Sumatra," by Dr. J. G. Garson, SCIENCE. Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon In this second part of the "Anglo-Saxon The volume contains fifty-four documents, The facsimile No. vii. of the Westminster documents clears up a doubt which hung over the fate of one of the most remarkable pieces of Saxon antiquity. Mr. Sanders very justly describes it as "one of those curious narratives concerning property that are not unfrequently met with among the AngloSaxon charters." But there are very few extant pieces which equal this one for interest. It is a history of the personal vicissitudes of the previous owners of the two estates of Send and Sunbury, and how those estates consequently came through Dunstan into the possession of the church of Westminster. This record was first published by Mr. Kemble in 1857 in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute. Mr. Kemble died before the proofs were revised. All that he had said about the original was this:-"The the Ordnance Survey the document lies before us in good condition and in the unmistakable lineaments of the tenth century. The Exeter documents are historically famous as having figured largely in the Dissertatio Epistolaris of George Hickes (1705) a treatise which first gave a critical basis to this study. It is singular that Kemble added nothing to Hickes's information about these Exeter deeds Perhaps he assumed that Hickes had exhausted that deposit; he does not appear to have visited the archives at Exeter; he simply adopted those deeds which he found printed in Hickes, and thus left several remarkable documents unnoticed, some of which are now published for the first time. Six of the Exeter deeds are concerned with land in Cornwall, and these preserve many old Cornish place-names, which will probably supply new and welcome material to the Celtic philologist. This It is an excellent feature of Mr. Sanders' work that he furnishes the previous literary history of each document, with the necessary references not only to Wanley, Hickes, Kemble, and Thorpe, but also now and then to local historians who have published them or contributed to their illustration. He has also brought together some valuable information about the persons and estates concerned, by which light is thrown either on the transaction itself or, where the transaction is doubtful, upon the motive of the documentary fabrication. An illustration of this is afforded by No. ii. of the Westminster series. purports to be a grant by Offa, in 785, of the estate of Aldenham to St. Peter's, Westminster. As penmanship, and for general composition, it is a very skilful work, which might easily be mistaken for a writing of the eighth century; but the grammar of the Saxon part betrays the man of the thirteenth century; and, when Mr. Sanders informs us that there was litigation about this estate in 1249, the history of the piece becomes pretty clear. But any inference we may draw applies only to the history of the writing before us, and does not touch the question of right. A still more important instance occurs among the Exeter charters. There are in existence five documents purporting to be grants of land by King Athelstan to the church at Exeter, and all bearing the impossible date of 670. They are not by any means such contemptible documents as SO absurd an error might seem to imply. Though condemned by Hickes, they were partially vindicated by Kemble; one of them has even been justified as to its substance by the discovery of the genuine deed for the same transaction. Here Mr. Sanders brings in a quotation from Domesday, which speaks of documents submitted to the Domesday surveyors at Exeter, that will in all probability help to give the required clue to the history of this problematical group of writings. These documents have been referred to not only by such historians as Kemble, Free- CORRESPONDENCE. THE EDITING OF MEDIAEVAL TEXTS. London: May 17, 1884. Mr. Hessels having misunderstood the purport of my last letter to the ACADEMY, I venture again to trespass on your space. Mr. Hessels is apparently indignant that I still persist in terming Dr. Buddensieg's Wiclif a critical edition. He would have us believe that critical scholarship is purely a matter of palaeography. Now, the historical student is, as a rule, perfectly indifferent to philology; he reads a text for the thought or facts which it contains, and not for its word-forms. He wants a readable text, whence he can easily draw the sense of his author. I am quite ready to admit the importance of philological study; I am quite content that Mr. Hessels and other philologists who want mediaeval texts edited in one fashion rather than another should fill columns of the ACADEMY with indignant protest till they attain their end. The historical student can look on with perfect indifference so long as the success of Mr. Hessels and his fellows does not mean that the labour of reading mediaeval texts will be seriously augmented. But there are two points in this controversy which do affect the historical student. First, if mediaeval texts are to be edited verbatim from the MSS., all forms which are calculated to puzzle the ordinary reader should be accompanied by explanatory foot-notes, or rather, for easier perusal, the ordinary form put in the text and the MS. eccentricity in the foot-note. Mr. Hessels seems to make light of the difficulties presented by orthographical (sic) eccentricity to the historical reader. Now, if I mistake not, he once told me that he would, if he could, reproduce even the MS. abbreviations in the text. In other words, he would publish much such a text as the early printer did; abbreviation and every eccentricity of the MS. before him would be reproduced, regardless of sense and regardless of the difficulty of perusal. If I do not misinterpret Mr. Hessels' views, he would vastly prefer Otto Brunfels' edition of the Trialogus, with its mediaeval spelling, to Lechler's, with its classical Latinity. Yet the historian who wishes to study life and thought, and not spelling, would undoubtedly declare for Lechler. Mr. Hessels may perhaps assert that one text is as easy to read as the other. For him, possibly; personally, I had spent hours over a page of Brunfels' edition every before I became aware that Lechler's text was is to be understood by a critical edition. He not quite understand how he could, on four or asserts that an edition is critical or otherwise five occasions, declare, in very distinct terms, according as it satisfies a certain palaeographical that he agrees with me, and yet "consider canon. That canon may be of the utmost im- this question of orthography to be of no very portance to the philologist, and for his sake, great moment.' I am contending (and I know perhaps, to be followed. For the historical many agree with me) for the faithful reproducreader it may be rather a nuisance than a tion of all MSS., because several years' hard blessing. For the purposes of such a reader work on Mediaeval Latin has taught me the the palaeographer pure and simple is quite great value of such faithful reproduction, even incapable of preparing a critical edition. A of so-called evident mistakes. I consider the critical edition to the historian is one edited by orthography to be of immense importance, even a man who has made a study of the works of if only one language were concerned; but in his author, of the thought of his time, and of the case of Mediaeval-Latin texts the orthothe inner meaning of mediaeval life. This graphy of the MSS. is of importance, not only knowledge, just as much as palaeographical for the study of Mediaeval Latin itself, but for detail, is needed to produce a critical edition; that of all the Romance languages, which, as and this knowledge is not wanting in Dr. we know, embraces a large portion of the Buddensieg. Does Mr. Hessels think that English tongue. It is some comfort to know without this study the palaeographer can be a that Mr. Poole is, indeed, of opinion that MSS. critical editor? Would he not be the first to should be faithfully adhered to, and, so far, we assert that such a man ought not to venture on agree; but, when it comes to stating our a mediaeval text? What would he think, for reasons for adopting such a method, Mr. Poole example, if an editor attempted, say, one of the gives no reason whatever for his opinion, and chief philosophical works of Wiclif, following mine (the study of palaeography and philology) accurately the spelling of his MS., but abso- he "considers to be of no very great moment." lutely ignorant of the philosophy of Wiclif's This is not, I think, agreeing with me. Howtime, perhaps even of the contents of Wiclif's ever, there is no immediate danger, as Mr. greatest philosophical work, the Trialogus? Poole's text will satisfy, I believe, all reasonSuch a thing is possible, albeit improbable. able demands. And I may, perhaps, hope that, Would Mr. Hessels consider that such an editor when Mr. Poole has made the enquiries which Let him I invited Dr. Buddensieg to make, we shall could produce a critical edition? admit that something more is required to pro-arrive at a more complete agreement than seems duce a critical edition than a mere mechanical to exist between us at present. reproduction of the MS. There is a scholarship which extends beyond, though it ought to include, the art of palaeography, and that scholarship is an absolute necessity for all editions which are to be critical for historical purposes. The existence of that scholarship in Dr. Buddensieg has produced to use the expression of Mr. Poole-a “work of signal merit,' for which every historical student will be grateful. The Wyclif Society may be congratulated if they obtain editors who in any degree approach the same standard. KARL PEARSON. J. H. HESSELS. Frenchay Rectory, Bristol: May 10, 1884. In editing ninth- to eleventh-century MS. material for the Clarendon Press, chiefly the work of Anglo-Saxon and Irish penmen, I ventured on a deviation from the MSS. not mentioned by Mr. R. L. Poole in his letter in the last ACADEMY, and, therefore, I suppose not adopted by him; I mean the introduction of capital letters after full stops. This seems to me to flow naturally from the first of his two admitted exceptions-the alteration of the Cambridge: May 17, 1884. original punctuation. With regard to all other Mr. Poole has done well, I think, in quoting capital letters, I faithfully followed the eccentrithe identical words he wrote in the Modern cities of the original scribes, omitting them Review regarding the editing of the Wiclif before proper names, and inserting them in volumes, as the extract quoted by Dr. Budden- their capricious and unmeaning, though rare, sieg suggested an opposite method to that appearances at the commencement of other and which he publicly advocated. I may perhaps ordinary words. It is to be hoped that we may be permitted to say a few words more, which, shortly have in England, what Dr. Buddensieg I trust, need not give rise to further correspond-states that they have already in Germany, ence. F. E. WARREN. generally accepted rules, laid down by some When I wrote my first letter of March 29 central literary authority, to regulate these and (ACADEMY, April 12) I did not know on what other details. The modernisation of the orthoparticular Wiclif work Mr. Poole was engaged.graphy in certain past volumes of the Rolls I had received, through the great kindness of Series, and in such present undertakings as Mr. Mr. Furnivall, proof-sheets of two Wiclif works W. de Gray Birch's Cartularium Anglo-Saxonnow in the press (De civili dominio and De incar-icum, seems to me to detract considerably from natione Verbi), and had always been under the the value of those publications. impression that the first was edited by Mr. Matthew, the latter by Mr. Poole. As these proof-sheets showed, I thought, that these two editors faithfully adhered to the words and spellings of their MSS., or recorded in a footnote any reading of the MS. or MSS. which they felt compelled to reject for the text, I felt at liberty to tell Dr. Buddensieg that this was the true method of editing "critically." Dr. Buddensieg's own method I called a bad one, with which we were already more "familiar " in this country than he imagined. It now turns out that Mr. Poole has in hand the De civili dominio, and Mr. Harris (also of Oxford) the De incarnatione Verbi. The remarks I have made must, therefore, refer to these two editors, not to Mr. Matthew, who has just informed me, to my great regret, that he, objecting to the "strange" spellings of his MSS., has altered them, and is not able to go over his work again to rectify this. Mr. Poole will, no doubt, pardon me if I do CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LATIN LEXICON. Edinburgh: May 5, 1884. The following list of Latin words not found in our latest and best Latin Lexicon, that of Profs. Lewis and Short-and the list is by no means an exhaustive one-was jotted down in the course of my reading for Prof. Wölfflin's complete Latin Thesaurus, shortly to be published. The books read were the Commentaries on the New Testament (ed. Migne) of that by no means out-of-the-way writer, Jerome. The list may be useful in showing how far we still are from perfection even in a branch of study which has been more industriously and continuously pursued than perhaps any other. And it may also be interesting to the many careful students among your readers may like to enrich the margins of their own copies therewith. who |