180
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vm. AUG. so, 1913.
The Romance of Wills and Testaments. By Edgar
Vine Hall. (Fisher UnwinO
THIS work appeared last year, and has come to our hands somewhat belatedly. The material col- lected is of the sort to interest readers of ' N. & Q.,' and has been arranged in a manner to form fairly entertaining reading. But we regret that it has not had expended upon it the final pains which would have made a really useful book. The dis- tribution into chapters is not happy, occasioning a good deal of repetition and the parcelling out of individual wills piecemeal into different categories. Moreover, no sort of chronological or other order is followed ; and while some things as, for instance, pious prefaces are, in proportion, over illustrated, others as, for instance, pre-Reformation wills, and instances of quaint bequests are illustrated less fully than they might have been. And we hope it is not altogether unkind to wish that the writer, instead of composing the rather obvious reflections inter- spersed among his extracts, or selecting examples from fiction, had spent the time upon an index.
For the serious historical student, then, the book is not of much importance ; but to the general reader it offers both information and amusement.
Perhaps few people realize how informal a valid will may be : Mr. Vine Hall cites ' ' All for Mother ' ' on a picture post-card as having proved sufficient. Among wills hastily made at the last extremity some of the most interesting are those of victims of the plague. They are often imperfectly witnessed, and drawn up without the aid of a scrivener it being difficult to find persons courageous enough to render these services to the stricken. In 1515 the will of Gefferey Salesbury of Leicestershire was witnessed by the priest only, "and no more for fear of the plague of pest." In the chapter on ' The Dead-Hand ' are given instances of curious or harsh conditions upon which a legacy was bequeathed and the oddest here is perhaps Edmund Clifton's bequest to Jane Mering of 40s. (1547), "of this condition, that she shall profess and knowledge herself not to have done her duty to me and my wife, before Mr. Parson and four or five of the honester men in the parish." A certain Anthony Wayte of Clapham (1558), who made a will likely to provoke contention, pro- vided that " if any dispute as to the meaning of my will, I will two or three unlearned husband- men of my parish of Clapham to interpret my meaning as they or two of them shall think in their conscience."
Dr. Johnson's will occupies the whole of a chapter ; and that of Sir Edmund Bury God- frey is another to which a good deal of space is given. Those readers of ' N. & Q.' who were interested in a fairly recent correspondence on midnight burial may care to note that Godfrey directed that his burial should be " very early in the morning or very late at night " the reasons being a desire to avoid pomp and pageantry and " to avoid being troublesome to the world, and especially to the streets, when dead." This last touch hints at the condition of the roads in the days before railways a condition to which in some degree, it would seem, motor-cars will soon bring us again. Godfrey's last wishes in this respect were overridden by the strength of public feeling after his mysterious death. A curious
instance of the opposite of a testator's wishes
taking effect even after a lapse of centuries is the
will of a French refugee, one Minet, made in 1686,
which was mislaid and remained perdu till 1905,
when, so far as was possible, its directions were
carried out.
We have not space to quote much more ; a single example of what is chronicled here in the way of tragic pathos must suffice. It is the will of an entombed miner in a recent catastrophe : ' ' May the Holy Virgin have mercy on me ! I am writing in the dark because we have eaten all our wax matches. You have been a good wife. All my property belongs to you."
The book winds up with a chapter on Ghosts, which contains about a score of ghost-stories, more or less fully related.
Book - Auction Records. Edited by Frank Karslake. Vol. X. Parts 2 and 3. (Karslake & Co.)
THERE are in these two parts nearly nine thou- sand records. Among many of special interest we find the first edition of the Bible in French, 1473, 2201. ; the ninth edition in German, being the first printed at Nuremberg, 1483, 41?. ; a presentation copy of ' Dr. Syntax,' 3 vols., first edition, 251. 10s. ; the first edition of ' Robin- son Crusoe ' and ' Serious Reflections,' 3 vols., 152Z. ; and Hakluyt's ' Voyages,' 3 vols. in 2, old calf, folio, 1599-1600, 400Z. There are several choice Horse. Among many works on military costumes is a superb copy of Mansion and Eschauzier, 135L A copy of the first edition of Milton's ' Lycidas,' Cambridge, 1638, fetched 240Z. Among Psalters is one printed on vellum, 1477, 140L ; the only other vellum copy known of this is in the Bibliotheque Nationale. An illus- trated copy of Racine, proofs of the plates before letters, 3 vols., red morocco, with arms of Napoleon, fetched 10 4Z. The Roxburghe and Daniel copy of Bodenham's ' England's Helicon,' of which only two copies are known, realized 130L ; the Kil- marnock edition of Burns, 1786, 140Z. ; and a fine set of ' Pickwick,' in parts, with wrappers, 50Z. A first edition of Herrick's ' Hesperides,' 1648, was secured for 150L The Kelmscott Press ' Chaucer ' went for 74Z.
Part 2 opens with an account of ' Books and Bookmen of Norwich,' by Mr. Albert D. Euren, editor of The Norwich Mercury ; and in Part 3 Mr. T. P. Cooper gives some of the ' Literary Associations of the City of York.'
tn
ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.
W. G. C. and G. W. E. R. Forwarded.
PENNINGTOX. MR. E. PEXNINGTON wishes to thank MR. CLARE HUDSON and MR. GERISH for their replies ante, p. 134.
CAPITAL LETTERS. SIR WILLIAM BULL writes to thank PROF. SAVAGE for his reply on this subject ante, p. 134.
CORRIGENDUM. P. 147, col. 1, 1. 28 from bottom, for "Toynbee's ed., ex. 288," read Toynbee's ed., x, 288.
