_The Camden Society_ has just issued a volume of domestic letters, which
contain much curious illustration of the stirring times to which they
refer. The volume is entitled _Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, wife
of Sir Robert Harley, of Brampton Bryan, Knight of the Bath, with
Introduction and Notes_, by the Rev. T. T. Lewis. The writer, Lady
Brilliana, was a daughter of Sir Edward Conway, afterwards Baron Conway,
and is supposed to have been born whilst her father was Lieut.-Governor of
the "Brill." The earlier letters (1625-1633) are addressed to her husband,
the remainder (1638-1643) to her son Edward, during his residence at
Oxford. The appendix contains several documents of considerable historical
interest.
_Elements of Jurisprudence_, by C. J. Foster, M.A., Professor of
Jurisprudence at University College, London, is an able and well-written
endeavour to settle the principles upon which law is to be founded.
Believing that law is capable of scientific reduction, Professor Foster has
in this little work attempted, and with great ability, to show the
principles upon which he thinks it must be so reduced.
Mr. Croker has reprinted from _The Times_ his correspondence with Lord John
Russell on some passages of Moore's _Diary_. In the postscript which he has
added, explanatory of Mr. Moore's acquaintance and correspondence with him,
Mr. Croker convicts Moore, by passages from his own letters, of writing
very fulsomely _to_ Mr. Croker, at the same time that he was writing very
sneeringly _of_ him.
A three days' sale of very fine books, from the library of a collector, was
concluded on Wednesday the 22nd ult. by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, at
their house in Wellington Street. The following prices of some of the more
rare and curious lots exhibit a high state of bibliographical prosperity,
notwithstanding the gloomy aspect of these critical times:--Lot 23,
Biographie Universelle, fine paper, 52 vols., 29l.; lot 82, Donne's Poems,
a fine large copy, 7l. 10s.; lot 90, Drummond of Hawthornden's Poems, 6l.;
lot 137, Book of Christian Prayers, known as Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book,
10l.; lot 53, a fine copy of Coryat's Crudities, 10l. 15s.; lot 184,
Breydenbach, Sanctarum Peregrinationum in Montem Syon, first edition, 15l.
15s.; lot 190, the Book of Fayttes of Armes and Chyvalry, by Caxton, with
two leaves in fac-simile, 77l.; lot 192, Chaucer's Works, the edition of
1542, 10l. 5s.; lot 200, Dugdale's Warwickshire, 13l. 10s.; lot 293, a
gorgeous Oriental Manuscript from the Palace of Tippoo Saib, enriched with
157 large paintings, full of subject, 112l.; lot 240, Horæ Virginis Mariæ,
a charming Flemish Manuscript, with 12 exquisite illuminations of a high
class, 100l.; lot 229, Milton's Minor Poems, first edition, 6l. 6s.; lot
315, Navarre Nouvelles, fine paper, 5l. 5s.; lot 326, Fenton's Certaine
Tragicall Discourses, first edition, 11l.; lot 330, Gascoigne's
Pleasauntest Workes, fine copy, 14l.; lot 344, Horæ Virginis Mariæ,
beautifully printed upon vellum, by Kerver, 26l.; lot 347, Latimer's
Sermons, Daye, 1571, 14l.; lot 364, Milton's Comus, first edition, 10l.
10s.; lot 365, Milton's Paradise Lost, first edition, 12l. 17s. 6d.; lot
376, The Shah Nameh, a fine Persian manuscript, 10l. 12s. 6d.; lot 379,
Froissart Chroniques, first edition, 22l. 15s.; lot 381, a fine copy of
Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, five vols., 69l.; lot 390, the original
edition of Holinshed's Chronicles, 16l. 10s.; lot 401, Lancelot du Lac,
Chevalier de la Table Ronde, Petit, 1533, 16l.; lot 406, the original
edition of Laud's Book of Common Prayer, 12l. 15s.; lot 412, Meliadus de
Leonnoys, a romance of the round table, 11l.; lot 417, a superb copy of
Montfaucon's Works, with the La Monarchie Française, 50l.; lot 418, Works
of Sir Thomas More, with the rare leaf, 14l. 5s.; lot 563, Shakspeare's
Life of Sir John Oldcastle, 11l.; lot 564, A Midsomer Night's Dream (1600),
18l. 5s.; lot 611, Shakspeare's Comedies, fine copy of the second edition,
28l.; lot 599, the celebrated Letter of Cardinal Pole, printed on large
paper, of which two copies only are known, 64l.; lot 601, Purchas, his
Pilgrimes, five vols., a fine copy, with the rare frontispiece, 65l. 10s.
The 634 lots produced 2,616l. 4s. 6d.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_Dante translated into English Verse_, by J. C. Wright,
M.A., with Thirty-four Engravings on Steel, after Flaxman. This new volume
of Bohn's _Illustrated Library_ is one of those marvels of cheapness with
which Mr. Bohn ever and anon surprises us.--_Curiosities of Bristol and its
Neighborhood_, Nos. I.-V., is a sort of local "N. & Q," calculated to
interest not Bristolians only.--_Poetical Works of John Dryden_, edited by
Robert Bell, Vol. II., forms the new volume of the _Annotated Edition of
the English Poets.--The Carafas of Maddaloni: Naples under Spanish
Dominion_, the new volume of Bohn's _Standard Library_, is a translation
from a German work of considerable research by Alfred Reumont.
* * * * *