460
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii B. v. jr a, 1912.
its strictures apply. Mr. Austin Dobson contri-
butes a paper on Suffren, and Miss Frances Pitt
a pleasant account of the badger, who, we are glad
to be told, is "still not at all uncommon in some
districts." Perhaps the most striking part of her
article is the account, near the end, of a huge set,
or badger's earth, " that had probably been used by
badgers for hundreds of years," of which, by digging
for three days, "tunnels upon tunnels" were ex-
posed without the end of it being uncovered.
BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. JUNE.
MESSRS. MAGGS'S Catalogue 289 is devoted to Autographs and Manuscripts. There are many good o,utozrauhs of musicians : among them a letter from Beethoven to the London Philharmonic Society, Vienna Feb. 5, 1816, 78^.; the original proof-sheets of the ' Elijah,' with alterations in Mendelssohn s hand,
- / and a letter of Mendelssohn's to Mme. Kieve',
107 10s two letters of Schumann's also, and two letters of Wagner's. In English literature the names best represented are Stevenson, Dickens, Tennyson, md Ruskin. In the whole catalogue the item for which the highest price-35W-is asked is a series of "love-letters" from Emily Tennyson to Arthur Hallam "written in an extremely affectionate strain "' They have been " neatly inlaid to 4to i 7 p " and bound in morocco, with srilt back and gilt edles They cover the period 1831-3. We can almost imagine a person, wealthy enough to pur- chase for 35W. the right to perform an act of piety, acnuiring these letters and destroying them unread. Vrnm America wehave letters from Capt.John Jones, 1-85 1< Thomas Jefferson, 1783, 521. 10*. ; and Washington, 1768, 651. ; and from the seventeenth century, letters of Henrietta Maria (to her brother the Du\e of Orleans^, 35/,; of Anne of Denmark (to the Archduchess of Austria, 1605). 521. ; and of John Evelvn (to Dr. Plot, 1687), KK. l&.-totake but a few among many. Of the MSS. the most important are an ' English Chronicle,' written upon a roll of vellum, 20ft. 5 in. long by 12 in. wide with illumin- ated border and genealogical tree, by an English scribe in the fifteenth century, 521. 10s. ; and the Original Muster-rolls of the County of ^orfolk, drawn up in 1661, as taken by John Kendall, the Muster Master, and serving as part of the basis for the organization of the English standing army formed by Charles II. They are written out on nine long sheets of vellum, $21.
MR CHARLES J. SAWYER'S Catalogue No. 30 begins with nothing less than Spenser's ' Pro- thalamion' in the original edition a perfect copy and in good condition, bound in contem- porary vellum. Only three such are known. For this he asks 150Z. He has also an interesting old Early English printed book, "The First J Booke of the Historic of the Discoverie and Con- quest of the East Indias enterpnsed by the
Portingales in their daungerous Navigations
now translated into English by N. L. Gentleman (Nicholas Lichfield), " imprinted at London by Thomas East, dwelling betweene Paule s Wharfe & Baynard's Castle," 1582, 151. 15s. A first edition of Boswell's ' Johnson ' is offered for ol 10s and a first edition of Charles Reade's
The Cloister and the Hearth ' for 61. 6s. Among the Coloured Plates we noticed Ackermann's
Oxford ' a good copy, with brilliant impressions,
1814, 13Z. 10s. ; and a word must be spared for
Macklin's Bible, published in 1800, and illustrated
with engravings by Bartolozzi and others
after the artists then most in vogue, 107. 10s. ;
and for the Wedderburn Edition of Buskin's
works, 37 vols., 1907-11, 261. There is also a
number of interesting Oriental MSS., and two
Horse the one a MS., fifteenth-century French,
18Z. ; the other printed at Paris [151-], iOZ. 10s.
MESSRS. SOTHERAN'S Catalogue No. 726 offers an unusually full collection of books on Botany' Parkinson, Gerard, and Culpeper figure in it, and we noticed besides the second edition of Curtis's ' Flora Londinensis,' valuable for the excellence of its coloured illustrations, 1817-28, 311. Ws. ; William Turner's ' Herbal,' three parts, and therewith a ' Booke of the Bath of Baeth,' and a " most excellent and perfect homish Apothecarye or homely Physik Booke .... Translated out of the Ahnaine speche into English by Ihon Holly- bush [i.e., Bishop Miles Coverdale]," all in 1 vol., folio, black letter, with several hundred woodcuts, 1568, 22Z. 10s. ; and the ' Hortus Indicus Mala- baricus,' in 12 vols., folio, having 794 plates, with inscriptions in Latin, Tamil, Arabic, and Sanskrit, and descriptions by various authors, which things " Notis et Commentario adauxit Joannes Commelinus," 1686, 20Z. There is a first Aldine edition of Aristophanes (" cum Scholiis grascis et Praefatione grseca Marci Musuri "), Venetiis, apud Aldum, 1498, 31Z. 10s. ; and Vindelin de Spira's Liyy, the first edition of Livy dated, 2 vols., folio, 1470, 4:81. 10s. There are several good topographical and archaeological works, of which we may mention a Camden's ' Britannia ' the last and best edition, with its 6,000 odd illustra- tions 1806, 501. ; a Dugdale's ' Monasticon Anglicanum,' the 1846 edition, with many additions, 28Z. ; and Hasted's ' Kent,' a first edition, 1778-99, 281. 10s. There are also one or two good sets of periodical publications, and among them we may notice a Notes and Queries complete from its beginning in November, 1849, to December, 1911 and having the full number of General Indexes in all 133 vols., 361.
[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]
We must call special attention to the following
notices :
WE beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print, and to this rule we can make no exception.
WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, nor can we advise correspondents as to the vain of old books and other objects or as to the means i disposing of them.
EDITORIAL communications should be addresse to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries '"Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pul (ishers "at the Office, Bream'iB lildings, Chancer Lane, E.G.
H. S. B. W. Forwarded.
W. C. J. ("Portraits by Stistermans "). See the articles on the subject at 11 S. iii. 267, 314, 418; iv. 195.
