sionally used as a diminutive of the French Teutonic personal name Raimond. N. W. HILL.

In English Surnames' by Charles Wareing Bardsley (1875) there is a section dealing with names chosen from Festivals and Holy days, from which I quote:-

It would be an anachronism to suppose Mr. Robinson Crusoe to have been the first who introduced this system, as even "Friday itself, to say nothing of "Munday or "Monday," and Saturday " and " Tuesday," were all surnames long anterior to that notable personages existence.

An example is provided in one Edward Munday, mentioned by Blomefield in his History of Norfolk.'

Francis Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, was rector of Fersfield in that County The latter was the date

from 1729 to 1751. of his death.

H. ASKEW. NA ATURAL HISTORY' (cl. 406).-The little book referred to is entitled: A Description of above Three Hundred Animals, viz., Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects. Illustrated with CopperPlates.' The work is anonymous, and a copy exists in the Library of the British Museum (Natural History), in whose printed catalogue it is described as new edition, 1791, ," and the authorship is attributed to T. Boreman.' It is also stated that the first edition appeared in 1730, and the seventh in 1753. In the Library of the Royal Scottish Museum (Harvie-Brown Bequest) there is a copy, on the title-page of which it says: Glasgow, printed by J. and M. Robertson, MDCCXCIV." Since A. H. R. refers to the illustrations as crude wood-cuts, and gives Edinburgh: Printed by Oliver & Co., Netherbow,' as the source of his copy, it is probable that he has picked up a Scotch reprint of a little book which apparently had in its day a large sale.

PERCY H. GRIMSHAW.

Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh.

The Library.

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. By H. W. Fowler. (Oxford Clarendon Press, 7s. 6d.).

Lo OVERS of English owe a great deal to Mr. H. W. Fowler, and their debt is considerably increased by this new volume. It contains an immense amount of information on minuter details of usage-spelling, pronunciation and proper inflection of foreign wordstogether with no less abundance of sound advice on the small grammatical puzzles which everyone who writes encourters. By its aid many an unfortunate, who regularly tangles himself up in his own language to the loss of his own and his readers' peace, should be brought to see exactly where he begins to go straight. Illustration is lavishly given, as for wrong, and get hold of clues to keep him instance (to take but one) the examples showing what a rondeau and a "roundel are. This particular account forms part of the which gives the terms of alphabetical series under Technical terms,' rhetoric, grammar, logic, prosody, diplomacy, literature, etc., that a reader may be confronted with or a writer have need of," and furnishes some of the best of these pages.

66

As a possession of plain, practical utility, a mere book of reference, this work will certainly be treasured in many an office and study, but it will also count for very much more. Mr. Fowler belongs to that Oxford group of lovers and students of English whose outstanding gift-among their many giftsis the combination of a definite, but muchembracing, ideal of pure English with keen feeling for the living development of the language. Everything that lives changes, and, changing, carries along with it a proportion of débris, of things that are effete, dead and cumbersome; and one of the great activities of the lovers of English is the endeavour to comb out as it were these dead matters, which are as offensive in their eyes as dead boughs in a fine tree to a forester. Many of articles in this dictionary are essays in this direction; as a still greater number may be considered as essays in pruning away undesirable growths. The main broad principle by which desirable and undesirable are separated

the

first sight surprising statement that Herrick's well-known lines beginning

"At Stool-ball, Lucia, let us play," are from Bold's Wit a Sporting (1657), becomes intelligible if we refer to W. É. A. Axon's life of Henry Bold (1627-1683) in the 'D. N. B. "In Wit a Sporting "" writes Axon, "Bold has stolen much from Herrick, and nearly fifty pages are from Thomas Beedome's Poems Divine and Humane,' London, 1641."

Bold seems to have lived up to his name. Herrick's Hesperides' had appeared in 1648. EDWARD BENSLY.

first mark of success to be clearness, of excelhumorlence to be brevity, Mr. Fowler is ously severe on old affectations, stereotyped forms of facetiousness, on clichés and the little bits of verbal padding which hardly any writer contrives wholly to avoid. We have not often found ourselves in disagreement with him; yet we think he allows rather too little to satisfaction of the ear, and underestimates the effect of that satisfaction in aiding or clinching the reader's apprehension. Some of the phrases and periphrases and other tricks which he derides find their justification here; and where they are used ill the correction should, we are

sure, take cognisance of the sense of rhythm in the writer, real cause of their adoption, and provide suggestion to content it. In fact, a chief defect in modern prose-the ordinary workmanlike prose of the more scholarly journalist, or the historian-is its poverty to the ear. Mr. Fowler's own writing would in some places be not only easier but also clearer if its rhythm were more distinct.

can

66

The numerous articles with headings like Elegant Variation,' Battered Ornaments,' Irrelevant Allusion,' Genteelism,' will have for the generations to come amusing historical interest. Parts of some of them seem to us already a little out of date, though the great majority castigate offences and negligences still needing castigation. In rebuking those who love long words-rebuke which memory of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries makes us question a little-Mr. Fowler deals with needless lengthenings of established words," and misses, we think, two points, one of them in his favour, the other against him: the first, the frequent incorrectness of form in the lengthened word (how preventative" be justified?); the second that the new form often carries extension of idea. The Mentality of the Pathan " is after all, not quite the same thing as 66 the mind of the Pathan,” nor normal waste quite the same as normal wastage.' We have had to summon up some courage to make even so much protest as this amounts to, for it would be dreadful to be read as taking sides in favour of the terrible tendencies in modern usage, whose existence Mr. Fowler proves by an astonishing array of quotations fit to set one's teeth on edge. His range is so wide; beneath words and usage lie so much of human nature and the history of the world; and the whole is presented and focussed so attractively and humanely that we are sure many a profitable hour will be spent over this dictionary without any purpose of immediate use. Let it be added that it is astonishingly cheap, and that the generosity of the Clarendon Press deserves every acknowledgment for this. Two Chapters of Persuasion. (Oxford Clarendon Press. 5s. net.)

THE

"

HE cancelled chapter, with the one that followed it, at the end of 'Persuasion are all that is left of the MS. of Jane Austen's novels. This edition of them--which should be precious in the eyes of her devotees-is printed from her autograph and before them is given a facsimile of the first leaf of "Chap. 10". Notes record the corrections and erasures which could be deciphered, with variations between the MS. and the edition of 1871. The MS. consists of a single gathering of sixteen leaves measuring 6 x 38 inches. As most of our readers will know it is in the British Museum There is something pleasing in reading Jane Austen's work as she wrote it, with contractions and capitals rather casually bestowed, and the

punctuation marking tense activity in composition. That she was right in being dissatisfied with the cancelled chapter we who have the substituted one can make no doubt-yet this is a graceful scene, in which Anne's charm is beautifully evident.

MR. MALCOLM LETTS writes to us as follows: The Belgian Historical and Archaeological Congress assembled last year at Bruges, and the committee has now decided to place a commemorative tablet on the house in the rue St. Claire, where the late Mr. JAMES WEALE lived and worked for many years. achievements in art and history have not One cannot help feeling that Mr. Weale's received the acknowledgment they deserve. He was a fine scholar and a patient investigator. He it was who first explored the Bruges archives in his search for material concerning the great artists whose names will always be associated with that town. the founder of all the later studies on the Van He was, indeed, Eycks, Memlinc, Gerard David, Blondeel and Claiessens, and there is no doubt that result of his efforts Belgian custodians and librarians were provoked into taking greater care of their treasures, while his researches into the history and archaeology of Bruges all subsequent workers in the same field can were extraordinarily exact and exhaustive, as testify.

as

a

Camille Tulpinck, the President of the ConThe amount required is not large, and M. gress, not unfairly asks that Mr. Weale's project. Mr. Weale, died in April, 1917. countrymen should take some share in the It would be a graceful act to unveil the tablet on the tenth anniversary of his death.

are

Subscriptions can be sent to M. Camille Tulpinck, 1, rue Wallonne, Bruges, or if they sent to me at 27, West Heath Drive. N.W.11, I will transmit the money to him and see that due acknowledgment is made by the proper official."