Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

    J.E.B. MAYOR.

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Collections of Wills have always been regarded, and very justly so, as among the most valuable materials which exist for illustrating the social condition of the people at the period to which they belong. Executed, as they must be, at moments the most solemn displaying, as we cannot but believe they do, the real feelings which actuate the testators; and having for their object the distribution of existing property, and that of every possible variety of description, it is obvious that they alike call for investigation, and are calculated to repay any labour that may be bestowed upon them. It is therefore, perhaps, somewhat matter of surprise that the Camden Society should not hitherto have printed any of this interesting class of documents; and that only in the twelfth year of its existence it should have given to its members the very interesting volume of Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St. Edmunds and the Archdeacon of Sudbury, which has been edited for the Society by Mr. Tymms, the active and intelligent Treasurer and Secretary of the Bury and West Suffolk Archæological Institute. The selection contains upwards of fifty Wills, dated between 1370 and 1649, and the documents are illustrated by a number of brief but very instructive notes; and as the volume is rendered more useful by a series of very complete indices, we have no doubt it will be as satisfactory to the members as it is creditable to its editor. Mr. Tymms acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Way and Mr. J. Gough Nicols: we are sure the Camden Society would be under still greater obligations to those gentlemen if they could be persuaded to undertake the production of the series of Lambeth Wills which was to have been edited by the late Mr. Stapleton, with Mr. Way's assistance.

When the proprietors of the Gentleman's Magazine at the commencement of the present year announced their projected improvements in that periodical, we expressed our confidence that they would really and earnestly put forth fresh claims to the favour of the public. Our anticipations have been fully realised. Each succeeding number has shown increased energy and talent in the "discovery and establishment of historical truth in all its branches," and that the conductors of this valuable periodical, the only "Historical Review" in the country, continue to pursue these great objects faithfully and honestly, as in times past, but more diligently and more undividedly. No student of English history can now dispense with, no library which places historical works upon its shelves can now be complete without The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review.

We have received the following Catalogues:—G. Willis's (Great Piazza, Covent Garden) Catalogue No. 41. New Series of Second-hand Books, Ancient and Modern; W.S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Sixtieth (catalogue of Cheap Second-hand English and Foreign Books); C. Hamilton's (4. Budge Place, City Road) Catalogue No. 41. of an important Collection of the Cheapest Tracts, Books, Autographs, Manuscripts, Original Drawings, &c. ever offered for sale.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS

MARTENS OR MERTENS THE PRINTER. Will D.L. kindly furnish us with a copy of the Note alluded to in his valuable communication in No. 42.?

JUNIUS IDENTIFIED. MR. TAYLOR'S Letter on his authorship of this volume is unavoidably postponed until next week.

M., who writes on the subject of Mr. Thomas's Account of the State Paper Office, will be glad to hear that a Calendar of the documents contained in that department is in the press.

SECOND PART OF MR. ARNOLD'S GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION.

Now Ready, in 8vo., price 6s. 6d.

A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION. Part Second. (On the PARTICLES.) In this Part the Passages for Translation are of considerable length.

By the Rev. THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

RIVINGTON, St. Paul's Church Yard, and Waterloo Place.

Of whom may be had, by the same Author,

1. The SEVENTH EDITION of the FIRST PART. In 8vo. 6s. 6d.

2. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK ACCIDENCE. Fourth Edition. 8vo. 5s. 6d.

3. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK CONSTRUING. 6s. 6d.

4. The FIRST GREEK BOOK; upon the plan of HENRY'S FIRST LATIN BOOK. 5s. (The SECOND GREEK BOOK is in the Press.)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

The Central Committee of the Institute have considered a Resolution, passed at a recent meeting of the British Archæological Association at Manchester, August 24th, in reference to the expediency of promoting a union between the Association and the Institute. The Committee desire to give this public notice, that they are ready, as they have always been, to admit members of the Association desirous of joining the Institute. They have determined accordingly, that, in order to offer reasonable encouragement to the members of the Association, they shall henceforth be eligible without the payment of the customary entrance fee, on the intimation of their wish to the Committee to be proposed for election. Life-members of the Association shall be eligible as life-members on payment of half the usual composition. All members of the Association thus elected shall likewise have the privilege of acquiring the previous publications of the Institute at the price to original subscribers.

Apartments of the Institute, 26. Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, Sept. 9, 1850. By order of the Central Committee, H. BOWYER LANE, Secretary.

HANDBOOKS FOR THE CLASSICAL STUDENT (WITH QUESTIONS). under the General Superintendence and Editorship of the Rev. T.K. ARNOLD.

I. HANDBOOKS of HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY. From the German of PÜTZ. Translated by the Rev. R.B. PAUL.

1. Ancient History, 6s. 6d.: 2. Mediæval History, 4s. 6d.; 3. Modern History, 5s., 6d. These works have been already translated into the Swedish and Dutch languages.

II. The ATHENIAN STAGE. From the German of WITZSCHEL. Translated by the Rev. R.B. PAUL. 4s.

III. HANDBOOK of GRECIAN ANTIQUITIES. 3s. 6d. HANDBOOK of ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 3s. 6d. From the Swedish of BOJESEN. Translated from Dr. HOFFA'S German version by the Rev. R.B. PAUL.

IV. HANDBOOKS of SYNONYMES: 1. Greek Synonymes. From the French of PILLON. 6s. 6d. 2. Latin Synonymes. From the German of DÖDERLEIN 7s. 6d. Translated by the Rev. H.H. ARNOLD.

V. HANDBOOKS of VOCABULARY, 1. Green (in the press). 2. Latin. 3. French (nearly ready). 4. German (nearly ready).

RIVINGTON'S, St. Paul's Church Yard, and Waterloo Place.

Just Published, price 1s. 6d. THE TIPPETS OF THE CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL. With illustrative Woodcuts, by G.J. FRENCH.

Also, by the same author, price 6d. HINTS ON THE ARRANGEMENTS OF COLOURS IN ANCIENT DECORATIVE ART. With some observations on the Theory of Complementary Colours.

GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.

Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts, 8vo, 10s. 6d. THE PRIMEVAL ANTIQUITIES OF DENMARK. By J.J.A. WORSAAE, M.R.S.A., of Copenhagen.

Translated and applied to the Illustration of similar Remains in England; by WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, Oxford, and 337. Strand, London.

In a few days, in 8vo., AN EXAMINATION OF THE CENTURY QUESTION: to which is added, A Letter to the Author of "Outlines of Astronomy," respecting a certain peculiarity of the Gregorian System of Bissextile compensation.

"Judicio perpende: et si tibi vera videntur,
DEDE MANUS."

GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.

Second Edition, with Illustrations, 12mos., 3s. cloth.

THE BELL: its Origin, History, and Uses. By the Rev. ALFRED GATTY, Vicar of Ecclesfield.

"A new and revised edition of a very varied, learned, and amusing essay on the subject of bells."—Spectator.

GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.

Just Published, Octavo Edition, plain, 15s.; Quarto Edition, having the Plates of the Tesselated Pavements all coloured, 1l. 5s.

REMAINS of ROMAN ART in Cirencester, the Site of Ancient Corinium: containing Plates by De la Motte, of the magnificent Tesselated Pavements discovered in August and September, 1849, with copies of the grand Heads of Ceres, Flora, and Pomona; reduced by the Talbotype from facsimile tracings of the original; together with various other plates and numerous wood engravings.

In the Quarto edition the folding of the plates necessary for the smaller volume is avoided.

"The recent discoveries made at Cirencester have been the means of enlisting in the cause of archælogy two intelligent and energetic associates, to whose exertions we are mainly indebted for the preservation of the interesting remains brought to light, and our obligations are increased by the able manner in which they have described and illustrated them in the volume now under notice.

"These heads" (Ceres, Flora, and Pomona) are of a high order of art, and Mr. De la Motte, by means of the Talbotype, has so successfully reduced them that the engravings are perfect facsimiles of the originals. They are, perhaps, the best of the kind, every tessella apparently being represented.

"Our authors have very advantageously brought to their task a knowledge of geology and chemistry, and the important aid which an application of these sciences confers on archæology is strikingly shown in the chapter on the materials of the tesselle, which also includes a valuable report by Dr. VOELCKER, on an analysis of ruby glass, which formed part of the composition of one of the Cirencester pavements. This portion of the volume is too elaborate and circumstantial for any justice to be done to it in an extract."—Gentleman's Mag., Sept.