The anniversary of the Camden Society on Monday last, when Mr. Peter
Cunningham, Sir F. Madden, and Sir C. Young were elected on the Council,
was distinguished by two departures from the usual routine: one, a special
vote of thanks to Sir Harry Verney for placing his family papers at the
service of the Society; and the other, a general expression of satisfaction
on the part of the members at the steps taken by the Council to bring under
the consideration of the Commission appointed to inquire into the laws
regarding matters testamentary, the great impediments thrown in the way of
all historical and literary inquirers by the authorities in the Prerogative
Office.
It does not require the skill of an Oedipus to divine that in giving us so
graphic a picture of _The Vicar and his Duties_, the Rev. A. Gatty has had
the advantage of sketching from the life, and that his portraiture of
"A good man of religioun
That as a poore Persone of a toun;
But riche he was of holy thought and werke."
is as much a true effigy, though taken with pen and ink, as if he had put
that capital parish priest, the Vicar of Leeds, before his camera. To the
many friends of Dr. Hook, this little volume will be deeply interesting.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--Pulleyn's _Etymological Compendium, or Portfolio of
Origins and Inventions. Third Edition, revised and improved, by_ Merton A.
Thoms. This new edition of a very popular and useful little book has had
the advantage of a thorough revision, and contains much new and interesting
information.--Longman's _Traveller's Library_ has lately been enriched by
two of Mr. Macaulay's brilliant essays, viz. on _Lord Byron_ and _The Comic
Dramatists of the Restoration_, and by a carefully compiled life of
_Marshal Turenne_ by the Rev. T. O. Cockayne: while Mr. Murray has added to
his valuable collection of _Railway Readings_, a reprint of _The Life of
Lord Bacon_, by his noble biographer Lord Campbell.--_Reynard the Fox,
after the German Version of Göthe, with Illustrations by_ J. Wolf. Part V.
This translation is kept up with spirit, and the present number carries us
to _The Pardon_ of the wily transgressor.--Mr. Bohn has put forth numerous
fresh claims on the favour of poor scholars: in his _Standard Library_ he
has given a third volume of _Miss Bremer's Works_, containing _Home_ and
_Strife and Peace_; in his _Classical Library_ he continues the translation
of _Aristotle_ in _The Politics and Economics_, translated by G. Walford,
M.A.; in his _Antiquarian Library_, he has continued in his series of
translations of Early English Chronicles by giving us in one volume a
translation of _Henry of Huntingdon_, and also of the _Gesta Stephani_;
while he will have done good service to naturalists and keepers of aviaries
and cage birds by the edition of Bechstein's _Cage and Chamber Birds_ and
Sweet's _Warblers_, which he has included in the same volume of his
_Illustrated Library_.
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