9*s.vn.FEB.9,i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
119
a few coarse words or phrases, the separate works
are faithfully reprinted, and a few explanatory
notes prove that the whole is intended for a popular
edition. Gilbert is the most pious of phrase where
all are pious, and Cavendish the most open in the
avowal of the cruelties practised. The piety,
though it had little influence in colouring actions,
was neither hypocritical nor skin-deep. As is
said, " Few passages in English story are better
known than that part of the present narrative
which describes Gilbert as sitting abaft on the
deck of the Squirrel, with a book in his hand,
cheering those in the Hind by reiterating, ' We are
as near to heaven by sea as by land.' " The wanton
destruction of property ana life, comprehensible
enough in the case of the Spaniards, is equally
injudicious and incomprehensible ; and the use of
thumbscrews to extract knowledge the victims in
many cases did not possess must have led to many
a fruitless undertaking. Raleigh is careful to insist
on the moderation and fair dealing which he
observed towards the natives. His account is not,
however, always convincing. The volume con-
cludes with Cavendish's last letter written to Sir
Tristram Gorges, a very interesting and painful
document.
THE first part has appeared of a reissue of CasselVs Illustrated History of England. This part, which, extending to eighty pages, is a marvel of cheapness, is profusely illustrated, and contains one coloured engraving presenting the signature of Magna Charta. Many of the illustrations are full-page. The same firm issue a memorial number of their Penny Maga- zine, 'Victoria, Queen and Empress,' which seems destined to an immense circulation.
THE Poster and Art Collector begins this year a new volume. A marked improvement in the character of the illustrations is apparent, and many of the contributions have value and interest both artistic and antiquarian.
THE Library supplies a capital portrait of M. Leopold Delisle, the doyen of librarians, accom- panied by a short memoir. In ' On Certain Quo- tations in Walton's "Angler,"' Mr. Austin Dobson proves that Isaac Walton was not influenced by the advice of the celebrated Dr. Routh, who, it is true, was not born till a couple of centuries later, to verify his quotations. So far astray does Walton go in this respect that when his memory fails him he avowedly improvises. It must be remembered that in his day facilities of verification were not many. Mr. W. Y. Fletcher has a good paper on 'Collectors of Broadsides,' the most eminent of whom in these later days is the Earl o! Crawford. Writing on 'The Juvenile Library, Mr. W. E. A. Axon draws attention to early contributions of T. L. Peacock, Fox, the famous member for Oldham, and De Quincey. These are curious and interesting. Mr. Robert Proctor writes concerning the latest additions to our knowledge o. 'The Gutenberg Bible.' Some good reproductions are given by Mr. Oscar Jennings of initial letters from incunabula and early works of the sixteentt century'. Mr. H. R. Plomer tells the sad story o: Stephen Vallenger, and Mr. A. W. Pollard sends 'A Meditation on Directories' and 'Notes on Books and Work.'
The Journal of the Ex-Libris Society. (Black.) The latest number of this periodical, still edited
y Mr. W. H. K. Wright, gives the particulars of
he recent winter meeting, and quotes in full the
peech delivered by Sir James Balfour Paul, the
jyon King of Arms. From this it seems that the
ondition of the Society is still prosperous, and that
he opposition, concerning which some rumours had
>een heard, is wholly trivial in influence. Some
liscussion took place at the meeting as to the
jxpediency of converting the Journal of the Society
nto a quarterly. This seems an excellent idea. It
s scarcely possible for one man, however exemplary
nay be his assiduity in the discharge of his
unctions, to bring forward with punctuality a
dozen publications in a year. This task has, how-
ver, been imposed on Mr. Wright for a decade.
THE most interesting article in the Fortnightly consists of Mr. Andrew Lang's comments on ' The Golden Bough.' While yielding a warm tribute to 3r. Frazer for the erudition displayed in his )ook, to which we referred but a fortnight ago see ante, p. 79), Mr. Lang dissents from the main argument, and also from some subsidiary con- clusions. As the author of 'Custom and Myth,' Myth, Ritualism, and Religion,' and other works of the class, Mr. Lang is entitled to speak. We claim no capacity to enter into the fray, but shall watch with keen interest for Dr. Frazers rejoinder. To this extent are we partisans of his, that we shall be sorry to have to give up the ingenious and beautiful theory he has originated and eloquently expounded. Mrs. (?) Virginia M. Crawford writes on Coventry Patmore, and, though warmly eulo- gistic, substitutes the language of sanity for that of extravagance, which has been constantly employed in speaking of him. It seems like a return to common sense to hear that distinction of thought sometimes failed him in verse, and that his ear would at times "be satisfied with the commonest, the most obvious of rhymes, and he could tolerate a triviality of language quite out of harmony with his theme." Mr. Alaarten Maartens sends a brilliant picture of feminine perversity, and George Paston gives some ' Eighteenth - Century Love- Letters,' which have a rather sorrowful interest. Mr. Rudyard Kipling's ' Railway Reform in Great Britain,' which opens the number, is a vastly amusing squib. Alone, so far as our observation extends, among monthly magazines, the Nineteenth Century appears with a mourning cover and with several pages also in mourning. It has a sonnet on the illustrious dead by Sir Theodore Martin, and some further praise of the praised of all. Sir Wemyss Reid also, in his customary monthly record, writes on ' The Queen,' and is severe upon " the Ministry of Miscalculations," attributing her death in part, at least to the recent strain upon her powers. It is not often that the public is afforded such an insight into the life of an Oriental potentate as is furnished in ' My Ways and Days in Europe and in India,' by the Maharajah Gaekwar of Baroda. His Highness's time is, according to his own account, fully occupied, and the record of his proceedings, public and private, is most honourable. Dr. A. Smythe Palmer, in a notable contribution to primitive culture and general scholarship, asks, ' What were the Cherubim?' Not easy is it in a phrase or two to sum up his conclusions. In their primitive conception, however, they were, he says, "personifications of those winds favourable to vegetation which were chosen to protect and guard a sacred enclosure as the embodiments of benedic-
