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Miscellaneous.
Notes on Books, Etc.
The noble President of the Society of Antiquaries is fast bringing to
completion the cheaper and revised edition of his _History of England from
the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles_, 1713-1783. The sixth
volume, which is now before us, embraces the eventful six years 1774-1780,
which saw the commencement of the great struggle with America, which ended
in the independence of the United States. In this, as in his preceding
volumes, the new materials which Lord Mahon has been so fortunate as to
collect from the family papers of the representatives of the political
leaders of the period, and which he has inserted in his appendix,
contribute very materially to the value and importance of his history.
_Cheshire; its Historical and Literary Associations, illustrated in a
series of Biographical Sketches;_ and _The Cheshire and Lancashire
Historical Collector_, a small 8vo. sheet originally issued every month,
but now every fortnight, in consequence of increase of materials, and the
great encouragement which the undertaking has received, are two
contributions towards Cheshire topography, local history, bibliography,
&c., for which the good men of the Palatinate are indebted to the zeal of
Mr. T. Worthington Barlow, of the Society of Gray's Inn.
It is always a subject of gratification to us when we see cheap yet
handsome reprints of our standard authors; for no better proof can be given
of the increase among us not only of a reading public, but of a public who
are disposed to read well. It is therefore with no small pleasure that we
have received from Mr. Routledge copies of his five shilling edition of
_The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, from the Text, and with the
Notes and Glossary of Thomas Tyrwhitt, condensed and arranged under the
Text_. It is obvious that considerable labour has been taken by the editor
in its preparation, for he has not contented himself with merely
transferring the contents of Tyrwhitt's Notes and Glossary to their proper
places beneath the text; but has availed himself of the labours of Messrs.
Craik, Saunders, Sir H. Nicolas, and our able correspondent A. E. B., to
give completeness to what is a very useful edition of old Dan Chaucer's
masterpiece. We have to thank the same publisher for a corresponding
edition of Spenser's _Faerie Queene_; so that no lover of those two
glorious old poets need any longer want a cheap and compact edition of
them.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_History of the Guillotine, revised from the Quarterly
Review_, by the Right Hon. J. W. Croker, which forms the new part of
Murray's _Railway {456} Reading_, is not only valuable as a _precis_ of all
that is known upon this very obscure subject, but for all its illustration
of the difficulty of arriving at historical truth.--_A Love Story; being
the History of the Courtship and Marriage of Dr. Dove of Doncaster_, that
delightful episode in Southey's most delightful book, _The Doctor_, forms
Part L. of Longman's _Traveller's Library_.--_The First Italian Book_
appears a very successful attempt on the part of Signor Pifferi and Mr.
Dawson W. Turner to furnish a companion to the _First French Book_ of that
accomplished scholar, the late Rev. T. K. Arnold.
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