The Library. Survey of London. Vol. XI. The Parish of Chelsea, Part iv. The Royal Hospital, Chelsea. By Walter H. Godfrey. (Batsford, for the London County Council. £2 2s.). CERTAIN volumes of the great Survey of London which the London County Council is bringing out under the editorship of Dr. Montagu H. Cox and Dr. Philip Norman, will appeal more directly and widely to public interest than others, and the volume before us is one of these. With the aid of 102 beautiful plates, which include plans as well as photographs, and Mr. W. H. Godfrey's minute and careful description in the letter-press, the old hospital, in its sober, homely beauty, is fully displayed, so that those who know it in some detail will assuredly obtain further enrichment of their knowledge, and those who know it not, and have no opportunity of visiting it, may really get some imaginative possession of it which is no idle thing to acquire, for Chelsea Hospital stands for much in English history. The pretty old story of its having been Nell Gwyn's idea-the trouble is the story is not old enough-can but find mention here: as Mr. Godfrey says, the plight of old soldiers on the one hand, and growing concern for them on the other, together with the new establishment of a regular army which must compel attention to the question, are enough to account for the foundation. It would be strange if the Hospital in some form had not been founded. As in idea it revived and carried on-with a difference the tradition of the medieval guesthouse for poor travellers, which linked itself on to the buildings and methods connected with monastic hospitality, so also it goes back to the old guest-house in the principles of its architecture, though again with a difference. Mr. Godfrey praises this most sympathetic work of Wren's with happy discernment. Here, in fact, was exactly the task to suit Wren's mind. In his churches, it can be very plausibly maintained, there is always something lacking: their spirit is 'morality touched with emotion thrilled with emotion," one might put it, at its best-and this perhaps does not perfectly suffice, gentle and lofty though it is. But for the Royal Hospital it suffices fully, and being unstrained seems to work the more vigorously and satisfyingly, the reader may find who traces the final result in this description. а On the brief and well-known history of the first steps towards the foundation-of which note occurs in Evelyn's Diary-there is no need to comment, but the earlier story of the site chosen is probably less familar to the general reader. It was pitched upon in 1606 for Theological College, a project much favoured by James I; and an elaborate and curious design was made for the building, reproduction of which forms one of the most interesting of the plates here a large many-towered quadrangle with & second smaller re-entrant quadrangle on its north side. Only a small part of this College, however was ever erected; not all the energy of Dean Sutcliffe of Exeter, who had desired its foundation expressly for controversial purposes, could put effective life into it, and during the Commonwealth, it is mentioned as dissolved," and is presently in use as a prison. After the Restoration it was first used for prisoners of war, and then, for a dozen years or so, held by the Royal Society. lege which consisted of a Provost, seventeen Of the learned persons conected with the Col Fellows and two Historians-the best known name is Camden, who torians. was one of the His In accordance with the plan of the Survey, the inscriptions in the Royal Hospital Buryingground are set out as they now appear, arms being illustrated where they occur. A few curiosities in the way of names and epitaphs will be noted. In 1749 died, at the age of 94 years, a housekeeper of the hospital who had borne the Christian name Utricia. William Hiseland, who died in 1732, is described as Faith A vetran if ever Soldier was Who merited well a Pension if Long Service be a Merit | Having served upwards of the Days of Man | Antient but not Superannuated Engaged in a Series maimed or worn out by either | His Complexion of Wars Civil as well as Foreign Yet not was fresh & florid | His Health hale & hearty | His Memory exact & ready | In Stature He exceeded the Military size | In Strength | He surpassed the prime of Youth | and | What rendered his Age | Still more Patriarchal | When above one Hundred Years Old | He took unto him a Wife Read Fellow Soldiers and Reflect That there is a Spiritual Warfare | As well as a Warfare Temporal Born vj of August 1620 | Died vjj of Feb. 1732 | Aged jj2" Here in the Moravian Burial Ground lies Count Zinzendorf; and in the King's Road Burial Ground lie two sisters, Elizabeth Walter and Catharine Michell, who died in the same year, and whom Elizabeth's husband John has thus commemorated, the Christian They [practised] its Duties Recipr .Jn Affection | Even from. . .rliest Childhood They never offended each other To their Relations and Friends They cheerfully attended on the Bed of Sickness | The Poor they assisted By medicinal and other Aids They were admirably alike | Particularly neat! Of few Words and affable Deportment|_ The epitaph goes on to express the writer's hope of rejoining them. To complete the picture, it may be mentioned that, far from their being twins, as the wording suggests, Elizabeth was by ten years the elder. This full record of inscriptions, the lavish provision of plates, with views interior and exterior, and many photographs of detail such as door-ways, newels, cupboards, cisterns, and chimneypieces, as well as the exhaustive architectural description, all of which is according to plan, necessarily leave little space for biographical notes, which are outside the general plan: nevertheless Mr. Godfrey has contrived to get in abbreviated biographical particulars which it is certainly useful to have. the full appreciation of those most intimate secrets of Johnson's great heart, which are so poignant that criticism and discussion seem almost an impertinence. Selected Letters of Byron. Edited by V. H. Collins. (Oxford. Clarendon Press. 4s. 6d. net.). Aspects of Dr. Johnson. By E. S. Roscoe. (Cambridge University Press. 6s. net). PAPERS, communicated to Club Meetings, do not always stand the testing process of subsequent publication; specially is this true on a subject so often and so well-worked over as Dr. Johnson's character-the ostensible object of the first three essays in this book. The FROM the fifteen hundred letters or so of best opens; on The Art of Living.' Much Byron's which remain to us, Mr. Collins. in it is sound, if not particularly fresh: what gives us here sixty-three, prefacing them with is new is one of the strangest theories imagin- a few words of penetrating appreciation. able. Having claimed, at starting, that for There is, perhaps, some little tendency just a teacher of the conduct of life, Johnson had now to exaggerate Byron's good quality as a every requisite qualification," Mr. Roscoe, for- letter-writer, but the high estimate in which getful, it seems, of its bearing on this plea, his warmest admirers hold his letters would remarks, in combating Hawthorne's criticism be found justified by this selection which prethat Johnson "did not go below the surface of sents him at his best. He was, as everyone things," that the surface of things was knows, a peculiar man as well as a man of sufficient because he was averse from specula- genius, and this fact, patent enough in the tion.' True, later on, he calls this a limita- pages before us, makes it all the more intertion, but nevertheless, pleads its value as esting to observe how plainly, also the general giving permanence to Johnson's teaching." tone of mind of his day and generation anSome sense of a flaw somewhere may have in- pears in them. This may be illustrated from spired Mr. Roscoe's extenuating statement that several places, as, for example from the the great man was concerned with the account of Charles Skinner Matthews which ordinary life of ordinary people.' He may he sent to John Murray from Ravenna in well be asked first, is that true in fact? In November, 1920, or the two letters to Scott any case, how can а man possess every given here. Mr. Collins's notes are brief, but requisite qualification for teaching the will probably be found by most readers sufficonduct of life," if he cuts out speculation, in cient. He has bestowed much, and largely sucanother word, philosophy? And how miser- cessful, pains on tracing the quotations with ably truncated is the view of life which makes which Byron was accustomed to variegate his no room for any but commonplace pedestrians correspondence. along the diurnal rut. Is it not a fact of 66 66 history, and a truth of secular proclamation, that the great revelations and discoveries come from those who, whatever they are, are not ordinary? And these contributions are a part of life. The four papers on Comparisons, where Johnson is likened, in turn, to Windham, Selden, Anatole France, and Wordsworth in the Highlands, whet expectation, but only to disappoint it. The most daring in idea, as the most conspicuous failure, is the third. France, at the moment, lies in that deepest trough of adverse criticism which almost inevitably succeeds triumphant progress on a cresting wave. Time will right things, but Mr. Roscoe has not contributed to the final equipoise. He seems, in all these four papers, but most conspicuously in this one, to neglect the meaning of comparison. A simple instance Johnson," he writes," preserved in his mind all sorts of out of the way verses which in the first instance he could hardly have done more than scan. Similarly, France could recite without effort hundreds of lines of Racine and André Chénier." Similarly! What perverse imp could inspire a critic to compare out of the way verses with "lines from Racine and André Chénier," two poets with special claim on a man with the temperament and tastes of Anatole France? must serve. وو Mr. Roscoe, like every lover of Johnson, realises the vital importance to him of religion. But his view of the nature and import of sin precludes him, apparently, from Westminster, S.W.1.) writes to us on the sub- NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. Printed and Published by The Bucks Free Press, Ltd., at their Offices, 20, High Streef High Wycombe, in the County of Bucks. FOR READERS AND WRITERS, COLLECTORS AND LIBRARIANS. Seventy-Ninth Year. IN VOLUME XII (1926) IN THE APRIL AND JULY PARTS WAS ISSUED A REPRODUCTION OF HORWOOD'S CELEBRATED PLAN OF LONDON, 1792-1799 IN 16 FOLDING PLATES, showing every square, street and court, almost every house being numbered as it was in the 18th century. The Plan is accompanied by copious notes, rich in theatrical facts, and is now for the first time offered in a convenient and inexpensive form of immense value to the historian and the scholar."-Glasgow Herald. RARE 18th CENTURY PLANS OF ROME & PARIS. Appeared in Volume XI, 1925. lovely plates of microscopic beauty."-Review of Reviews. beauty." ORDER FROM T. JOHN GLOVER, 61, Chancery Lane, THE MASK PUBLISHERS, SETS FOR SALE. FIRST SERIES (1849-1855), 12 Volumes and General Index, bound cloth, (2 volumes and General Index in Publisher's cloth), second hand, clean and sound, £3 38. When replying to advertisements please SECOND SERIES mention NOTES AND QUERIES." CONTENTS.-No. 8. MEMORABILIA :-127. NOTES:- Poems for young Ladies,' 129-Berkeley Hunting Papers, 132- Troilus and Cressida ': "My Sacred Aunt "-Sleeping out in Hyde Park, 134. QUERIES:-The Duke of Sussex-The Green Park -Nathaniel Fiennes and Lincolnshire-Malebisse: de Percy, 135-Malebisse and Beckwith ArmsSix Stars on seal-" Teaque as name for Irish running footman-Ward Family of Bradfield, 136-Engraving: identification wantedAuthors wanted, 137. REPLIES:-The Cock at Temple Bar, 137-Leighton, 139-Berkeley Hunting Papers-Authorship of prayers-Parish Register Transcripts, 140Eurasian Population of India: bibliography wanted-Punch-Incense :Kuphi-Moxon of Hull and Pontrefract, 141-Feast of St. Egwin-Donovan's British Fishes '-Authors wanted, 142. THE LIBRARY:- Johnsonian Gleanings,' Part V, 1728-1735- The Plantagenet Ancestry'-'The Old Testament in Greek.' (1856-1861), 12 volumes, uniformly bound in cloth, second hand, clean and sound, £2 2s. THIRD SERIES.-General Index SEVENTH SERIES.-Vol. v (Jan.-June, 1888). NOT ... ... ... ... ... OTES AND QUERIES is published every Friday, at 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks (Telephone: Wycombe 306). Subscriptions (£2 28. a year, U.S.A. $10.50, including postage, two half-yearly indexes and two cloth binding cases, or £1 158. 4d. a year, U.S.A. $9, without binding cases) should be sent to the Manager. The London Office is at 14, Burleigh Street, W.C.2 (Telephone: Chancery 8766), where the current issue is on sale. Orders for back numbers, indexes and bound volumes should be sent either to London or to Wycombe; letters for the Editor to the London Office. Memorabilia. has occurred to us that, in this year of his commemoration, our readers might like to have recalled to them the one or two contributions sent to N. and Q.' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. We have added to them note of those from Maria and Christina Rossetti. Contributions by William Michael Rossetti are much more numerous than those from his brother and sisters, and are not included here. The first at 3 S. ii. 406 (Nov. 22, 1862) is from Maria; she has been reading Forsyth's History of Napolean's Captivity at St. Helena' and sends four searching queries together with notes raising other topics for discussion. At 3 S. iii 397 (May 16, 1863) Christina answers the query of a correspondent about the occurrence of more than one edition of the Prayer Book in which the beginning of the Prayer for the Church Militant is printed: Almighty and everlasting God, instead of everliving." Writing from "Chester Villa, Painswick Road, Cheltenham," she says she has just met with one, bound up with a Bible (MDCCLXVI) and Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalms (M. DCC.LXI), all apparently printed by the same printer. At 4 S. v. 154 (Feb. 5, 1870), Dante Gabriel Rossetti answered a query asking for particulars about the poet Ebenezer Jones-a short but very interesting account of personal contact, which deprecates the neglect of Jones, and then goes on to deprecate the similar neglect of Charles J. Wells, friend of Keats, and author of Joseph and his Brethren and Stories after Nature.' At a THE Hove Public Library has received from as the generosity of Lady Wolseley a gift not only excellent in itself but valuable example; and of the treatment which the Hove Corporation have accorded to this the same may truly be said. The gift is a collection of all sorts of material illustrating agriculture and horticulture in Sussex, and it is housed in a room specially built and decorated for the purpose at the Hove Public Library. Historically the most important part of the collection is the nucleus of Sussex Records, which includes maps, water-colours and photographs. It is hoped that it will eventually comprise records of every parish in Sussex. The following appeal is being circulated, the like of which every lover of England will wish to see addressed to every county: We desire to make it generally known that the Master of the Rolls has scheduled the Hove Public Library as a County Depository for Manor Rolls and Manorial Records. The break up of large estates during recent years has led to the wholesale destruction of ancient documents. Material, irreplaceable because unique, has been lost for ever to the archeologist and local historian. The "Times and other leading journals have frequently admitted and deplored this misfortune. We would, therefore, earnestly request all custodians of old parchments and papers not to destroy them, or sell them as mere waste, but to notify Mr. J. W. Lister, the Librarian, Hove, so that they may receive a thorough expert examination into their possible historic or antiquarian value. The Hove Public Library has adequate and suitable fire-proof accommodation for the storage of ancient muniments, an efficient permanent staff to calendar them and render them available to the student, and the voluntary assistance of several learned antiquaries to advise on the questions of technical difficulty. LECONFIELD, Lord Lieutenant of Sussex. LOOKING through the Churchwardens' Accounts of South Littleton, Worcestershire, for 1548-1571, transcribed and annotated by |