BOOK GOSSIP.
The Norman Conquest is one of the great outstanding and predominating facts in English history. It occasioned a sudden break in the life of the English people, and its influence is felt in their character and institutions even to the present day. A hundred and fifty years before that event, the long black ships of the Norse pirates entered the wide mouths of the Seine and the Loire, and their crews, the rudest of the rough barbarians of Denmark and Norway, sacked the towns and pillaged the churches of the country which was afterwards to be called by their name. They had no science, no arts, no culture. Their physical strength was their glory; and their weapons of war, their defence at home, served also as their passport into the lands of the stranger whom they plundered and slew. But they had a remarkable power of adaptation. However foreign to them the environment into which their hardy courage had brought them, they did not long remain untouched by it. Without losing their own native hardihood and fearlessness, they quickly absorbed into them the spirit of the peoples and institutions among which they had taken root; and before a century had passed over their heads in France, they had already become one of the great political forces of Europe. It was this people, brave, warlike, and with strong practical sagacity, who landed on the English shores in 1066, and shattered the Saxon arms on the slopes of Senlac. The battle at ‘the hoar apple tree,’ where Harold lay dead with the Norman arrow deep in his brain, marks the beginning of a new epoch in England.
The history of that great event, with its antecedents and consequents, has rarely been better told than it is by Mr Wm. Hunt, in the new volume of the ‘Early Britain Series,’ entitled The Norman Conquest (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). As compared with the work of Freeman, this is in bulk but a small book; yet it contains within it all that thousands of readers would desire to know of the history of the Conquest. The author is extremely well-informed on his subject, and his scholarly little book gives evidence not only of original research but of much original thought. The pictures he draws for us of the England that preceded the Conquest, and of the England that followed it, are sketched with a fullness and beauty of detail which amply exhibit the capacity and preparedness of the author for the task which he undertook, and which he has executed so well. His extensive reading has enabled him to take advantage of the results obtained by all the best and more recent investigators in this section of European history; and the Northmen both before and after their descent on France, as well as the Saxon tribes and Danish hordes that scoured our coasts centuries before, are portrayed with a quick and living touch. Still more interesting is the story of the Normans after their taking possession of England; and the strange manner in which the Saxon head eventually conquered the Norman hand—the Saxon language and institutions arising in more than their original vitality and force out of the ashes, as it were, of a temporary death—is here narrated with admirable clearness and coherency. The book is one of the best of the very valuable series to which it belongs.
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The same publishing house issues another learned little volume on Anglo-Saxon Literature, by Mr John Earle, Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford. It belongs to the series bearing upon ‘The Dawn of European Literature,’ and is rich with the results of the best modern scholarship on the early history and growth of our language. The time when Latin and Greek formed the chief essentials of learning is fast receding into the past, and these languages are having a place assigned them more consistent with the necessities of the modern world, which is not tolerant of the acquisition of a kind of knowledge that in great part is archaic and useless. Under the influence of this change, our own language is rising into an importance which it could never attain so long as it was regarded simply as a vulgar tongue, and the historical study of English is becoming one of the most popular as well as one of the most useful pursuits of our philologists. The great English Dictionary of the Philological Society is only one evidence of this; for individual scholars, during the last twenty years, have done not a little to lay bare to us the inner structure of our language, and the changes and modifications to which it has been subjected in the course of its long descent.
In the little work under review, Mr Earle states that Anglo-Saxon literature is the oldest of the vernacular literatures of modern Europe. The materials of this early literature are found chiefly in written books and documents; but they are found also in such subsidiary sources as inscriptions on churches and church towers, sun-dials, crosses, and even on jewellery. One of the most remarkable in this last category is what is known as the Alfred Jewel. It was discovered in Newton Park, near Athelney, in 1693, and in 1718 had found its way to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where it still is. It consists of an enamelled figure enshrined in a golden frame, with a golden back to it, and with a thick piece of rock-crystal in front, to serve as a glass to the picture. Around the sloping rim the following legend is wrought in the fabric: Ælfred mec heht gewyrcean (‘Alfred me commanded to make’). ‘The language of the legend,’ says the author, ‘agrees perfectly with the age of King Alfred, and it seems to be the unhesitating opinion of all those who have investigated the subject that it was a personal ornament of the great West-Saxon king.’ Mr Earle traces the language from the Heathen Period—that is, from the time previous to the English conversion to Christianity, about 597 A.D.—down to the times that immediately succeeded upon the Norman Conquest, and gives examples of the language during these six centuries, with translations of the various passages adduced. All who have an interest in the study of the English tongue, and of the changes superinduced upon it by contact with other European vernaculars, will find Mr Earle’s volume a ready and efficient guide.
THE MONTH:
SCIENCE AND ARTS.
Projects for cutting waterways across isthmuses follow one another with such amazing swiftness, and the project is in most cases so quickly followed by realisation, that it would appear that before many years have passed, all the available peninsulas of the world will have been operated upon and transformed into islands. Our French neighbours are at present discussing the feasibility of a gigantic undertaking of this nature, which, if carried out, will unite the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean. This projected canal, which is to be of such dimensions that the largest ships afloat can make use of it, is to have one entrance near Bordeaux, and the other at Narbonne. This short-cut across France will obviate the necessity of the tedious voyage round Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar, and will undoubtedly be a boon to shipping, and especially to British vessels; but the scheme is at present only on paper. It remains to be seen whether the undertaking is possible; by which is meant, in these days of engineering marvels, whether it will pay.
Like most other canal projects, this one is by no means new; indeed, a canal already exists almost along the same line of route—namely, the Canal du Midi, which finds an outlet at Cette in the Gulf of Lions, and joins the river Garonne at its other extremity at Toulouse; the entire navigable distance from Bordeaux to Cette being three hundred and thirty-two miles. The existing canal only accommodates small vessels, and the entire journey is by no means a rapid one, for there are more than a hundred locks to be encountered, which gradually raise the boats to a level of nearly eight hundred feet above the sea. Whether the engineers of the new undertaking propose any novel means of battling with this difficulty of level, we do not know; but it will be readily seen that the undertaking has not the simplicity of a simple cutting, such as the Suez Canal presents. Another formidable obstacle to the work is the presence of certain rivers which flow right across the track. In the present case, these are crossed by aqueducts. But what would be the size and cost of aqueducts which would give passage to the floating palaces which have taken the place of the small vessels of days gone by?
Coming nearer home, a project has been mooted for cutting a channel from the river Tyne to the Solway; and another across the low land which separates the Forth from the Clyde. It is true that in the latter case a narrow passage already exists; but what is required is—according to the opinion of a former President of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, who writes to the Times upon the subject—a channel which will allow the passage of our largest merchantmen and ships of war, so that in case of need the efficiency of our naval defences may be practically doubled. In case of war, the advantages of quick transport of our ships from one coast to the other is obvious, and may in a manner be compared to the undoubted advantages which we reap from being able to convey information quickly from place to place by telegraphic agency.
Some very interesting Roman relics have recently been unearthed in the bed of the river Rhone at Geneva, where some engineering works are in progress. The most interesting of these is a Roman altar furnished with an inscription to the effect that the writer, a certain soldier of the twenty-second legion, who had been shipwrecked in the waters hard by, had raised this altar to the god of the waves, Neptune, as a thank-offering for his escape from death. We have also to record a far more valuable find near Rome itself—at Subiaco, where several priceless statues supposed to have been sent by the Emperor Nero to that place for the decoration of his villa there, have been dug up. In Britain too, a Roman villa has just been laid bare at Woolstone, Berkshire, where, in addition to many tesselated pavements, several graves of the Anglo-Saxon period have been found. In London, our knowledge of the Roman city which lies beneath the busy metropolitan streets has been much enriched by numerous discoveries made during the recent excavations for the completion of the Underground Railway. There is little doubt that interest in things antiquarian is rapidly increasing on all sides. This is not only apparent from the attention which every fresh discovery receives, but is indicated in a most satisfactory manner by the circumstance that the University of Cambridge has given archæology a recognised position among the subjects for the classical tripos examination, and has just opened a Museum which will give an impetus to studies of the kind.
Although interest in matters archæological shows a healthy increase, we have to regret a decrease of interest in another important branch of knowledge. The Royal Geographical Society, which has just held its anniversary meeting, has had to deplore, by the mouth of its President, Lord Aberdare, that the Council have failed in their attempt to introduce the efficient study of geography into the curriculum of our great public schools, such as Eton and Harrow. Prizes have been offered; but there were few who cared to compete for them. This seems a very extraordinary state of things in a country which is always proudly pointing to its possessions as being so large that the sun must always shine upon some part or other of them. But the fault probably lies with the teachers more than with the pupils. The members of the Geographical Society evidently understand this, for they are now about to institute an inquiry into the systems adopted for geographical instruction in continental schools, from which, if all reports speak truly, we may well take a lesson.
Professor Monier Williams’s recent lecture on India, delivered before the University of Oxford, was full of interesting particulars relating to the great progress in every way which that vast country had experienced under British rule. But perhaps the most interesting portion of his remarks was that relating to the new route to India which will probably be opened, and which it is expected will lead to great development of intercourse between our Eastern and Western possessions. This route will consist of a journey from London to Odessa; thence by steamer across the Black Sea to Batoum; then by Russian railway—a thirty-six hours’ journey—to Baku on the Caspian; and a day’s voyage across the Caspian to Michaelovsk. At this latter place is the terminus of the Central Asian Railway, which some months ago was complete for one hundred and forty-four miles, and which will eventually land the traveller at the gate of India—Herat. The journey from Calais to our Indian frontier will be possible in nine days, so long at least as we remain friends with Russia. Professor Williams considers that we shall be bound to extend our railway from its present limit at Quetta, through Candahar, so as to meet the Russians at Herat. He thinks that we can meet them there as friends rather than enemies; and all will agree in trusting that his words may come true.
During the past year, the progress made by the British Ordnance Survey has been greater than in any previous period, an area of more than two and a half million acres having been mapped. It is expected that the survey of the entire kingdom will be complete by the year 1888, and that the publication of the maps will be finished two years later. A largely increased staff of surveyors and draughtsmen has been engaged to insure this acceleration in the work, and considerable time has been spent in instructing their assistants in their duties. The maps are reduced to the six-inch scale, and are reproduced by the zincographic process. All particulars of the work are contained in a recently published Blue-book.
The long-continued dispute as to the right of the telegraph department to erect posts and wires over our crowded city streets has at last been set at rest, and the Postmaster-general can, with certain restrictions, do much as he likes about the matter. The Telephone Companies, who are new-comers and have no statutory powers, have yet to fight the question. We must for many reasons deplore the circumstance that additions will still be made to the metallic spider-webs which cover so many of our fine metropolitan streets. It has been suggested that the lines could be made to follow the contour of the roads, and could be hidden under eaves and behind coping-stones so as no longer to offend the eye, or to present the risk of danger to life, which they now undoubtedly do. This innovation would doubtless mean a great deal of difficulty to telegraphic engineers, and would be naturally opposed by them, for there is a sweet simplicity about a suspended wire; but the gain to others would be great.
The International Health Exhibition, London, which follows so closely upon the Fisheries Exhibition, and occupies the same spacious site, bids fair to be a success, although it can hardly be expected to be quite so popular with the multitude as its predecessor. Still, there is much to attract the far larger part of the community who long for amusement rather than instruction, and as the financial success of the undertaking must be dependent upon such visitors, the caterers cannot be blamed if they have admitted within their walls many exhibits which, by the widest stretch of the imagination, can hardly be associated with the subject of health. For more thoughtful visitors, there are Conferences upon all manner of questions connected with Domestic Sanitation, questions of which the majority of people are at present profoundly ignorant. There will also be papers read upon the subjects of Meat-supply; Food-adulteration and Analysis; School-diet; School-life in Relation to Eyesight; Posture in Schools; Epidemics in Schools; and numberless other matters of social interest. As these Conferences are under the care of different Societies and Associations, which exist only to increase our knowledge regarding the different subjects indicated, and which have in most cases been at work for many years, we may be sure that much good will accrue from these discussions. Following the procedure of the Fisheries Exhibition, a number of pamphlets will also be issued, dealing with the multifarious sections of the Exhibition.
Although, as we have more than once pointed out, the general adoption of the electric light for domestic purposes cannot be looked for in the near future, it can easily be installed for special occasions. An account has recently been published of a ball at a private house in London where the rooms were illuminated during the evening by one hundred and twenty incandescent lamps. These lamps were fed by secondary batteries, which arrived in two vans, and which were subsequently accommodated in an adjoining coach-house. The batteries had been previously charged at a place ten miles distant. This use for the light may possibly become common in cases where cost is not a matter of first consideration.
Another phenomenal diamond has fallen to the lot of a fortunate digger at the Kimberley mine, South Africa. Its weight is three hundred and two carats; but, unfortunately, it does not possess that purity of colour, or rather absence of colour, which is the first desideratum in a diamond. Its value is said to be about three thousand pounds; whereas the far smaller Porter-Rhodes gem, found in the same mine about three years ago, was valued by its owner at one hundred thousand pounds. But the popular notion is that the value of a thing is what it will fetch, and there are certainly very few persons in the world who would lock up such an enormous sum for the doubtful advantage of possessing such a thing.
A document, which should be widely known, was recently issued by the Board of Trade, in the form of a Report of the first year’s experience of the Boiler Explosions’ Act of 1882. This Act, we may remind our readers, provides that an inquiry should be held into the cause of every boiler explosion, with a view to their prevention if possible. The causes of the forty-five casualties of this description which were inquired into, and which resulted in the loss of thirty-five lives and injuries to as many more, were entirely preventable. One of the assistant-secretaries to the Board goes so far as to say that ‘the terms “inevitable accident” and “accident” are entirely inapplicable to these explosions, and that the only accidental thing about many of them is that the explosions should have been so long deferred.’ The prevailing cause of the disasters is the unsafe condition of the boilers through age, corrosion, wasting, &c.; and a noticeable feature in many cases is the absence of any effort on the part of the steam-user to ascertain the condition of the boiler, and consequently of any attempt to repair, renew, or replace defective plates or fittings.
The authorities of Kew Observatory have undertaken a duty which will be hailed with satisfaction by all watchmakers and watchowners in the kingdom. They will undertake for a small fee to test the virtues of any watch left in their care, and with every watch so tested, will issue a statement of its going powers, under varied conditions of position, temperature, &c. They will also award to watches of superior excellence certificates of merit, which certificates will possess an equal value with documents of the same nature which have for years been granted by the Geneva and by the Yale College Observatories. The Swiss and Americans have long enjoyed these facilities for obtaining independent testimony as to the qualities of their watches, and it is only surprising that a movement has not been made before in this direction here at home; for English-made watches, in spite of foreign competition, are still much sought after.
A new method of dealing with road-sweepings and the contents of domestic dust-bins is now on its trial in New York, and seems to be very successful. The rubbish is carted, to the extent of forty loads a day, to a wonderful machine, which separates the paper, rag, iron, glass, coal, and cinder into different heaps. These are afterwards sold, with the exception of about four hundred pounds of coal and cinder, which are used for firing the engine attached to the machine. The remaining refuse—of no use to anybody, and too often, under existing systems, a possible source of disease—is reduced by fire to impalpable ash. It has been the custom in New York for many years to carry their rubbish out to sea and to discharge it outside the harbour. Pilots and others have long protested against this procedure, and affirm that the approaches to the harbour’s mouth are gradually being silted up by the accumulation of dirt thrown in. The experiment will be watched with interest by all those who acknowledge the importance of improved sanitation in our large towns and cities.
Moon’s Patent Quicksilver-wave Gold Amalgamator is the imposing title of a clever machine which has been introduced to obviate the serious loss of gold which is inseparable from previously existing methods of treating the ore. From the discovery of gold in California in 1848 to the end of 1882, the value of the gold found there was nearly two hundred and thirty-seven million pounds sterling. It is said on competent authority that this vast amount is less than fifty per cent. of the gold known to be in the ore treated, more than half the precious metal escaping in particles so fine that the machines employed could not intercept them. In this new machine, the crushed ore, mingled with water, is thrown in small quantities into a moving wave of quicksilver, and not merely across a quicksilvered plate, as under the old system. The tiniest spangles of gold are by this means speedily absorbed by or amalgamated with the liquid metal, the two being afterwards separated by heat in the usual manner. In one mine where Mr Moon’s machine is in use the increase of yield is estimated at forty pounds sterling per week, so it would seem that the cost of the appliance is soon repaid to its purchaser.
A very convenient combined seat and easel for the use of sketchers has lately been brought under our notice. It packs into a very small compass; it will hold a large picture; it fully justifies its name, ‘The Rigid,’ and actually weighs only four pounds. Its price is moderate, and it is to be had of Messrs Reeves, London.
Referring to a recent article in this Journal on ‘Some Queer Dishes,’ in which it was stated that the cuttle-fish is used for food in Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific, a Portuguese correspondent writes to us that in Portugal the cuttle-fish is used as an article of food. It is opened, and then dried; and may be seen hanging up for sale in the shops. The people, he remarks, consider it a delicacy; and it is, when properly cooked, very rich and nourishing.