_The History of Millwall, commonly called the Isle of Dogs, including
Notices of the West India Docks and City Canal, and Notes on Poplar,
Blackwall, Limehouse,_ {656} _and Stepney_, by B. H. Cowper, is
unquestionably one of the most carefully compiled, and judiciously
arranged, little topographical works, which we have ever been called upon
to notice. The intelligent M.P. who is recorded to have asked a witness
before a select committee for the _precise_ locality of the Isle of Dogs,
and to have been satisfied with the answer "Between London Bridge and
Gravesend," may, if inclined to pursue his inquiries, find its history told
most fully and most agreeably in the little volume now before us.
In our Number for the 21st of May last, we called attention to, and spoke
in terms of fitting approbation of, the First Part of _The English Bible_;
containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the authorised version;
newly divided into paragraphs, with concise Introductions to the several
Books, and with Maps and Notes illustrative of the Chronology, History, and
Geography of the Holy Scriptures; containing also the most remarkable
variations of the Ancient Versions, and the chief results of Modern
Criticism. Part II., comprising _Exodus_ and _Leviticus_, is now before us,
and exhibits the same merits as its predecessor.
Mr. Miller, of Chandos Street, who during the past year added to the value
of the Monthly Catalogues by the addition to each of them of several pages
of literary and bibliographical miscellanies, has just collected these into
a little volume, under the title of _Fly Leaves, or Scraps and Sketches,
Literary, Bibliographical, and Miscellaneous_, which may find a fitting
place beside Davis's _Olio_, and other works of that class.
We regret to learn, as we do from the _Literary Gazette_ of Saturday last,
that the Trustees of the British Museum, in defiance of the earnest
recommendation of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Archaeological
Institute, and with a total disregard of the feelings and opinions of those
best qualified to advise them upon the subject, have declined to purchase
the Faussett Collection of Early Antiquities, and consequently will lose
the Fairford Collection offered to them as a free gift by Mr. Wylie: so
that the enlightened foreigner, who visits this great national
establishment, and admiring its noble collections of Greek, Roman,
Egyptian, and Assyrian antiquities, asks, "but where are your own national
antiquities?" must still be answered, "We have not got one!" They certainly
do manage these things better in France and Denmark.
Our readers, we have no doubt, shared the regret with which we read the
advertisement in our columns last week from the Rev. Dr. Hincks, who, from
the want of encouragement, and in the face of peculiarly adverse
circumstances, is compelled to withdraw from the field of Assyrian
discovery; and who is advertising for some competent person who will work
out what he has in progress. Although Assyrian literature may at present be
discouraged by the Church and neglected by the Universities, there can be
little doubt that it must ere long assume a very different position: and we
therefore trust that some means may yet be taken to prevent Dr. Hincks'
withdrawal from a field of study in which he has been so successful.
As we have deviated from our usual course in noticing subjects advertised
in our pages, we take the opportunity of calling the attention of our
antiquarian friends to the advertisement from the Rev. G. Cumming on the
subject of the casts now making from the Runic Monuments in the Isle of
Man.
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