thoroughly scientific and yet very easy to master, and when once it is mastered it is surprising with what ease one reads through and takes in a long article on an important word, which seems at first sight to bristle with strange terms and abbreviations and symbols. In this department the authorities of the Clarendon Press are to be congratulated on the perfectness of the printing, and on the skill with which variations of type have been made use of to assist the reader, and make the pages, as the Preface says, "eloquent to the eye.”

The historical method may now be considered as having established its claim to be the only true and sound method of studying language. Mr. Skeat has shown this with regard to the department of etymology, and it is certainly not less true with regard to their meanings. This method is carried out throughout the dictionary in regard to both form and meaning, and the illustrative quotations are arranged by centuries, so that there is no difficulty in ascertaining when a word acquired a given signification, so far as quotations are forthcoming to show it.

The classification of the vocabulary is both clear and interesting, but it would be impossible to give a briefer statement of it than the introduction supplies, and we must be content to refer our readers to it. The division of words according to their citizenship in the language into naturals, denizens, aliens, and casuals, strikes us as specially helpful.

The scale on which the work is done may be gathered from the fact that the article on "A" occupies eleven columns, treating it as a letter, as a numeral, as an indefinite pronoun, then in two abbreviations for "have" and "aye," then as a preposition, then as an interjection, then as a prefix, and lastly as a suffix. Or take an important word or two: "adventure" has two columns as a substantive and one as a verb, "all" fills ten columns, in which the elaborate and exhaustive treatment of the word in all its bearings is truly admirable. "Act,” again, fills two columns as a substantive and nearly two as a verb. On the other hand, the pains with which all words that can make any fair claim to "Anglicity" (as to which there are some good remarks in the first paragraph of the explanations), may be gathered by finding such words as "airmanship" for skill in managing a balloon, for which all the authority consists of two quotations from the Daily Telegraph, or "alamodic," which, on the authority of an 18th century cyclopædia, seems to have been used by a writer of 66 a dissertation on alamodic or artificial sermons."

On the whole, this first part gives us good assurance that the work when complete will be not only far the best and completest English dictionary extant, but perhaps the nearest to an ideal perfection of any dictionary of any language whatever.

The Encyclopædic Dictionary. Part I. Cassell & Co., Limited. 1884. THIS work, if we may judge by its first instalment, bids fair to take a foremost place as a book of reference. Part I., which is now before us, is necessarily but a fractional portion of the whole, but it nevertheless contains sufficient matter to show that for fulness and accuracy it is likely to stand almost unrivalled. The work will be copiously illustrated, and it will contain all words to be found in the most comprehensive dictionaries, together with their origin, their various significations, their pronunciation, history, and use. It will also embrace a very large number of obsolete words, which will afford readers much assistance in the perusal of the works of ancient authors; indeed, many old words and expressions, which have hitherto escaped the attention of lexicographers, will be introduced for the benefit of the student of ancient literature.

Historic Winchester. By A. R. BRAMSTON and A. C. LEROY. London: Longmans & Co. 1883.

FEW of the ancient cities of England have so notable a history as "England's First Capital." Consequently, a work like the one before us, which deals with its affairs from the time when the Celts first formed the little town of Caer Gwent on the hill slopes (B.C. 200) to the present year of grace when Bishop Harold Browne rules the diocese, can hardly fail to be of interest and importance. The authors go methodically through the history of the city from the earliest times, dealing with the subject in a popular and attractive manner. As might be expected, a full account is given of William of Wykeham's holding of the bishopric, and his work in and on behalf of Winchester. Excellent also is the way in which the annals of the college are recorded. Seldom has the history of any town been treated so ably and carefully, and we can heartily recommend the book to all who delight in great facts pleasantly told.

THE Chronological Chart, by Mr. EDWARD J. ENSOR, of Milborne Port, Somerset, is undoubtedly a great acquisition to all who take an interest in historical studies. It begins with the year B.C. 1500, and ends with the present time; and it has been so arranged that, as in a map the relative extent and position of countries are seen, so here, bearing in mind that the entire Chart is made to a fixed scale, wherein a certain lineal measurement represents a definite number of years, the nearness or remoteness of historical facts may be instantly grasped by the mind. The Chart consists of nine and a half sheets, and is issued in various styles, adapted either for the table or the wall. Several tints and many kinds of type have been used, in order to arrest attention and to assist the memory. The labour and skill which Mr. Ensor has exercised in bringing together such a vast amount of facts has been very great, and there can be no doubt that the Chart will be found very valuable for the purposes of historical instruction in schools, whilst for the purposes of reference and comparison the Chart is invaluable.

The Myth of Kirkê: An Homerik Study. By ROBERT BROWN, jun., F.S.Á. London: Longmans. 1883.

AMONG the many incidents in the story of the "much wandering man," none is more strikingly remarkable that the story of Kirkê, in whom we scarcely recognised at first the better known Circé. It is well told by Mr. Brown.

THE New England Historic and Genealogical Society has reprinted from the Register, in a separate form for private distribution, a short Memoir of JOSEPH LEMUEL CHESTER, the late eminent genealogist, so well known to our readers as the laborious and painstaking editor of the "Registers of Westminster Abbey." It traces his career as a school-boy, as a law student, as a lecturer, and as an editor; and it gives a complete list of his contributions to the study of antiquarian research, which were so highly appreciated here, that Her Majesty presented him with a copy of her book, with her autograph inscribed in it, and the University of Oxford bestowed on him an honorary D.C.L. degree. The portrait prefixed to the Memoir will be valued by a large circle of friends. He died in the early summer of 1882, at the age of sixty-one, and lies buried in Nunhead Cemetery. R.I.P.

English Etchings, Parts 32-34 (W. Reeves, 185, Fleet-street), contain several fine examples of the etcher's handiwork, notably Ludlow Church, one of the finest ecclesiastical buildings in Shropshire; Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, the fourth of a series by Mr. W. Holmes May; Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, by Mr. G. Aikman, F.R.S.A.; Old Putney Bridge, by Mr. Swain; and the church of St. Bartholomew-theGreater, West Smithfield, by Mr. W. P. Crooke. Part 33 contains an admirably executed portrait of Mr. W. M. Thackeray, by Mr. G. Barnett Smith.

A SMALL brochure, printed in the Norman-French dialect of Guernsey, and containing The Sermon on the Mount and The Parable of the Sower, from the pen of the late Mr. George Métivier, the national poet of the island, and translated by him from the ancient French version of Le Maistre de Sacy, has just been issued as one of the Guille-Allès Library series. The volume has been edited, with parallel French and English versions, by Mr. John Linwood Pitts, of Guernsey. The French version of De Sacy is printed from the folio edition published at Paris in 1731. His version of the New Testament was first printed by the Elzevirs, at Amsterdam, in 1667. "As a local reminiscence in connection with the English Authorised Version," the editor writes, "it is interesting to recall the fact that one of the divines who assisted in preparing it was Dr. Adrian Saravia, at one time an assistant minister at the church of St. Peter-Port, and the first master of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (founded in 1563), now Elizabeth College, Guernsey."

FROM Ye Leadenhalle Presse comes, as the last instalment of the Vellum Parchment Shilling Library, a quaint little volume, The Oldest Diarie of Englyssh Travell. It is a hitherto unpublished narrative of the Pilgrimage of Sir Richard Torkington to Jerusalem in 1517, and affords the material for a study of our language at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Although the Old English may at first sight appear somewhat "mixed" and confusing, the words can be deciphered with very little trouble; it will then be found that the observant knight had "made a note" of everything striking in earth, and sky, and sea, from the day of his departure from Rye in Sussex on the "ffyrst ffryday a for mydlent in the vii. yer of Kyng Herri the viiith., and the yer of ower Lorde God mlcccccxvij" until the day when the pilgrim returned to Canterbury, where he "made an ende of his pylgrymage." The book, it may be added, is full of information of all kinds.

Obituary Memoirs.

"Emori nolo; sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo."—Epicharmuɛ.

GUSTAV LUDERITZ, Professor of Engraving at Berlin Academy, died recently in his eighty-second year.

A. E. LYOUTSENKO, a Russian archæologist, died on February 9, at St. Petersburg, at the age of seventy-seven. From his youth he displayed a marked bent for archæological research. He at length obtained the appointment of curator of the Museum at Kertch, a post which he filled for the last twenty-five years of his life. Here," says the Athenæum," he superintended the numerous excavations which, as is well known, resulted in the discovery of ancient gold ornaments, &c.,

the work some of the Scythians and some of the Greek colonists, and the more important of which have been removed to the Hermitage."

WE much regret to record the death of Mr. Thomas North, F.S.A., which occurred on the 27th February, at his residence at Lanfairfechan, North Wales. Mr. North, who was in his 55th year, had been a friend and supporter of this magazine from its commencement, and he was the author, inter alia, of "The Church Bells of Lincolnshire," which was reviewed by us in a previous volume,* and of a similar work on those of another county. Mr. North had been for some time honorary secretary of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society, and he was also an honorary member of the Derbyshire Archæological Society, &c. He had made a special study of Campanology, and was well known as the author of "The Chronicle of St. Martin's Church, Leicester." By the death of Mr. North Notes and Queries loses an old and valued contributor.

THE Hon. William Owen Stanley, F.S.A., of Penrhos, Anglesea, uncle of Lord Stanley of Alderley, died on the 24th February, in his 82nd year. He was the second son of the first Lord Stanley of Alderley, and was born in 1804. Mr. Stanley was Lord Lieutenant of the county of Anglesea, and sat in the House of Commons as member successively for Anglesea, Chester, and Beaumaris, but retired from Parliamentary life in 1874. General Pitt-Rivers, in a letter to the Times, gives the following testimony to the services which Mr. Stanley had rendered to the country by his contributions to prehistoric research: "The excavations which he carried on for some years on his own property in Anglesea, and the records of them which he published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries and'Archæological Journal,' are well known to archæologists as examples of careful study and well-directed research, and have been the means of throwing much light on the habits of the primitive inhabitants of Anglesea, more especially on their mining operations at a time when the first introduction of metals gave such an important impulse to the progress of civilisation. After a long and useful Parliamentary career his interest in these matters was excited by the writings of Lubbock, Evans, Greenwell, and others; and he at once applied himself to the subject with all the energy and good judgment for which he was known to his contemporaries, and his investigations ceased only when the infirmities of age made it impossible for him to withstand the exposure to the weather which these studies entail. His frequently expressed regret that circumstances had not led him to devote his mind to these studies earlier and the success which attended his labours in later life will no doubt serve as an incentive to many who, as owners of property, possess such exceptional opportunities of contributing a useful page to the early history of their country."

Meetings of Learned Societies.

METROPOLITAN.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.-Feb. 14, Mr. A. W. Franks, V.P., in the chair. Mr. W. H. St. John Hope exhibited a small ivory statue of St. Sebastian, of German work of the sixteenth century. Mr. J. Petherick

See Vol. ii. p. 150.

exhibited a broadside, entitled "King William's Blessed Deliverance and England's Joyful Preservation, with a Farewell to King James, upon the Happy Discovery of the late Horrid Jacobite Plot. London, printed by J. Dover, 1696. Sold by R. Hayhurst in Little Britain, price 2d." It was illustrated by four cuts, namely, the conspirators sitting in conclave; the manner of the intended execution of the said barbarous design; the House of Parliament subscribing to the National Association, &c.; and, the manner of conveying the condemned traitors from Newgate to execution. Mr. Petherick also communicated various historical documenis and tracts relating to the same period. Mr. J. H. Middleton communicated an elaborate paper on the recent discoveries in the atrium of Vesta in the Roman Forum, and photographs of two views of one of the statues of a Virgo Vestalis Maxima, together with copies of the very curious inscriptions on the bases or pedestals of the statues. Mr. Middleton called attention to the peculiarities of the costume, which exhibited features of great novelty and interest, and gave a careful record of the portions of each statue that were missing, a record which may prove of the greatest value in view of possible attempts at restoration. In many cases the block of marble had not been large enough for the whole figure, and limbs or folds of drapery had been attached with bronze dowels. -Feb. 21, Mr. A. W. Franks, V.P., in the chair. Mr. E. Freshfield laid before the Society an elaborate history of the parish of St. Stephen, Coleman-street, based on the books of records and other parish books, which, together with the communion plate of the church, were exhibited in illustration of the paper, which threw a flood of light upon the social history of the times.-Feb. 28, Dr. C. S. Perceval, Treasurer, in the chair. The Hon. H. A. Dillon exhibited three sheets of photographs of prehistoric implements found at Rorke's Drift and Isandhlwana by Col. Bowker, when making graves for the dead who fell on those now historic sites. Mr. A. G. Hill read a paper "On the Ecclesiology and Architecture of Pomerania and Mecklenberg," which he copiously illustrated by a series of beautiful drawings, diagrams, and water-colour sketches executed by himself. Among the towns which Mr. Hill had visited were Schwerin, Wismar, Lübeck, New Brandenburg, Doberan, Stralsund, Rostock, Greifswald, and Hamburg. "This paper," observes the Athenæum, "will form an excellent sequel and complement to the paper by Mr. Nesbitt, published in the Archæologia twenty-five years ago."March 6, Mr. A. W. Franks, V.P., in the chair. The following were declared to be elected Fellows: Sir J. H. Lefroy, Rev. T. S. Curteis, Messrs. J. W. Willis-Bund, R. C. Hope, W. J. Fitzpatrick, W. H. Cummings, J. J. Stevenson, and J. Anderson.-March 13, Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., V.P., and afterwards Mr. H. S. Milman, Director, in the chair. Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, F.S.A., exhibited the wooden effigy of a secular canon from the church of All Saints, Derby. The effigy, on which the exhibitor read some descriptive notes, had been brought to London for repair before being re-instated in its proper place in that church. Mr. Henry F. Napper read a paper entitled, "An Inquiry as to the actual Sites of Clausentum,' 'Venta Belgarum,' and other Roman stations in Britain which are mentioned in the' Itinerary of Antoninus.'” The paper gave rise to an interesting discussion. Mr. J. H. Middleton, F.S.A., exhibited further photographs of the statues of Vestal Virgins, lately exhibited in the Temple of Vesta, in the Forum at Rome, in illustration of the paper read by him on February 14.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-Feb. 20, the Rev. Dr.