ii s. ix. MAY so, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
439
1892, and ' Derby, its Rise and Progress,' b>
A. W. Davison, 1906, both published locally
The former states :
" The poet Shelley was a spectator, and related the scene in a pamphlet which he shortly after published. ' We Pity the Plumage, but Forget the Dying Bird.' "
W. B. H.
0n 1500113.
The Hermits and Anchorites of England. By
Rotha Mary Clay. (Methuen & Co.', 7s. (><7.)
WE congratulate Miss Clay on having brought together a goodly mass of material on a subject which has the advantage of being both well within the scope of a newly roused interest, and at the same time largely unstaled. "She has gone systematically and thoroughly to work, and so far as the names of the persons concerned and of their habitations go it may be said that there is nothing of importance which she has left untouched. Nor has she spared trouble over setting down more or less exactly, each with its justifying reference, many of the details of the history and legends of the English hermits and anchorites. - She has collected a surprising number of scattered bits of information which, if necessarily in many cases sparse and inadequate, have usually the great merit of being clean-cut and precise.
She devotes her first seven chapters to separate descriptions of groups of anchorites and hermits, classified according to the form of the solitude they chose : " cave-dwellers," " island and fen recluses," " anchorites in church and cloister," and so on. Then come seven chapters, each on a different aspect of the eremitical life and rule, which are followed by three valuable appendixes : the Sarum Office for the enclosing of anchorites ; the Office, according to the Rule of St. Paul the first Hermit, for the benediction of hermits ; and a tabulated list of cells.
Among the most interesting pages we may note those which toll of the hermits who, besides the business of prayer and contemplation, took upon themselves certain definite services on behalf of their fellows -chiefly the tending of beacons and the repair of bridges and causeys. Of the her- mitages on the coast, one which had a curious history is that in the cliff at Dover, mentioned in the disbursements of King John of France when setting out for Calais in 1860. Naturally, it was often connected with comings and goings to and from France, and just before the suppression of the religious houses was rebuilt by Joachim de Vaux, the French ambassador, who, however, could not safeguard the old man who lived in it from suspicion as a helper of the King's enemies, and from brutal treatment on the part of the neighbouring countrymen.
Some of the work of the hermits who had charge of roads and bridges survives even to our own day ; and the other work of theirs which has lived is in the score or so of books they have left us. It is curious to remember that the first English-Latin dictionary was the work of a recluse most likely, it seems, of a certain
Geoffrey, '* the Grammarian," a Dominican of
Lynn. The names of Richard Rolle and Mother
Julian are too well known to be more than men-
tioned here.
We cannot say that we think the arrangement of the book at all a happy one. There is something grotesque in classif ying recluses by their habitat^ as if they were part of the fauna of a country, and the plan leads inevitably to scrappiness, repetitions, and confusion. Hut these are slight faults com- pared with the loss of historical perspective in- volved in this method. The centuries between Cuthbert's day and that of the Dissolution of the Monasteries witnessed more than one well- marked and well-known religious development, as well as social and political events which affected the general religious life contemporary with them. Nothing of this appears in the book,* the lives of the recluses being cut off from any distinctive relation to the? times in which they lived. The right plan to have followed though it had the disadvantage of being obvious was the chrono- logical one. None of the antiquarian interest of the material need have been forgone in adopting it, and the mere keeping together the characters which belonged to the several centuries would have brought a better understanding of the whole subject to a tolerably informed reader. One can supply from memory at least an outline of the conditions of the country, and of opinion, pre- valent at any given time upon which he is allowed to dwell ; but one cannot, without considerable weariness and confusion, dart from one period to another and back again, and reconstruct the features of each in imagination as one reads &< paragraph.
The chapters on the eremitical life show the- same arbitrary and unfortunate method of division, which has resulted both in overlapping and in slightness.
The illustrations are many of them of great interest, forming, indeed, one of the best features of the book.
A History of Leaf/ram : the Park and the Manor.. By John Weld. (Chetham Society.)
THE author of the present work died in 1888.- Mr. Brown bill, who contributes the Prefatory Note, informs us that the greater part of it was probably written between 1880 and 1885. It is, therefore, matter of course that the student who- is conversant with the material which has come to light within the last thirty years, and with the many calendars of the public records which have been printed during that time, will be able largely to supplement the information here given. Still, so far as it goes, this account of an interesting- Lancashire estate is full and trustworthy enough
- ,o make it well worth publishing. It has been
most carefully compiled, and includes, in one shape or another, all the important documentary evidence then available. The first two divisions give a history of the park and the manor respec-
- ively, and the third consists of a close and de-
railed description of the estate at the time when
- he branch of the Welds to which the writer
jelonged .settled there the beginning of the last century. This will always retain its value, and with the account of the chapel which follows will DC the part of the book for which later historians of Lancashire will feel themselves most indebted
- <o the family.
