The Rev. Edward Trollope, F.S.A., wisely conceiving that an illustrated
work, comprising specimens of the arms, armour, jewellery, furniture,
vases, &c., discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum, might be acceptable to
those numerous readers to whom the magnificent volumes, published by the
Neapolitan government, are inaccessible, has just issued a quarto volume
under the title of _Illustrations of Ancient Art, selected from Objects
discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum_. The various materials which he has
selected from the _Museo Borbonico_, and other works, and a large number of
his own sketches, have been carefully classified; and we think few will
turn from an examination of the forty-five plates of Mr. Trollope's
admirable outlines, without admiring the good taste with which the various
subjects have been selected, and acknowledging the light which they throw
upon the social condition, the manners, customs, and domestic life, of the
Roman people.
As the great Duke of Marlborough confessed that he acquired his knowledge
of his country's annals in the historical plays of Shakspeare, so we
believe there are many who find it convenient and agreeable to study them
in Miss Strickland's _Lives of the Queens of England_. To all such it will
be welcome news that the first and second volumes of a new and cheaper
edition, and which comprise the lives of all our female sovereigns, from
Matilda of Flanders to the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, are now ready; and will
be followed month by month by the remaining six. At the close of the work,
we may take an opportunity of examining the causes of the great popularity
which it has attained.
Mr. M. A. Lower has just published a small volume of antiquarian gossip,
under the title of _Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian,
and Metrical_, in which he discourses pleasantly on Local Nomenclature, the
Battle of Hastings, the Iron Works of the South-East of England, the South
Downs, Genealogy, and many kindred subjects; and tries his hand, by no
means unsuccessfully, at some metrical versions of old Sussex legends.
Several of the papers have already appeared in print, but they serve to
make up a volume which will give the lover of popular antiquities an
evening's pleasant reading.
We beg to call the attention of our readers to the opportunity which will
be afforded them on Wednesday next of hearing Mr. Layard lecture on his
recent _Discoveries at Nineveh_. As they will see by the advertisement in
our present Number, Mr. Layard has undertaken to do so for the purpose of
contributing to the schools and other parochial charities of the poor but
densely populated district of St. Thomas, Stepney.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--Mantell's _Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight,
&c._ This reprint of one of the many valuable contributions to geological
knowledge by the late lamented Dr. Mantell, forms the new volume of Bohn's
_Scientific Library_.--_Retrospective Review, No. VI._, containing
interesting articles on Drayton, Lambarde, Penn, Leland, and other writers
of note in English literature.--Dr. Lardner's _Museum of_ {163} _Science
and Art_, besides a farther portion of the inquiry, "The Planets, are they
inhabited Worlds?" contains essays on latitudes and longitudes, lunar
influences, and meteoric stones and shooting stars.--_Gibbon's Rome, with
Variorum Notes_, Vol. II. In a notice prefixed to the present volume, which
is one of Mr. Bohn's series of British Classics, the publisher, after
describing the advantages of the present edition as to print, paper,
editing, &c., observes: "The publisher of the unmutilated edition of
Humboldt's Cosmos hopes he has placed himself beyond the suspicion of
mutilating Gibbon."
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