NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC.
The Rev. W. Haslam, the author of Perran Zabuloe, has just issued a little volume entitled The Cross and the Serpent, being a brief History of the Triumph of the Cross through a long Series of Ages in Prophecy, Types, and Fulfilments. Though the present work belongs to one of the two classes which, for obvious reasons, we do not undertake to notice in our columns, there is so much of curious matter illustrative of Folk Lore, early remains, and old-world customs, in the third part of it, as to justify our directing the attention of our antiquarian readers to the archæology of the volume. The Druidic Beltein or Midsummer Fire still burns brightly, it appears, in Cornwall. We shall endeavour to transfer to our Folk Lore columns some passages on this and other cognate subjects.
Mr. Russell Smith announces a series of Critical and Historical Tracts on the subject of, I. Agincourt; II. First Colonists of New England (this is already issued); and III. Milton, a Sheaf of Gleanings after his Biographers and Annotators. The name of Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., which figures upon their title-pages, is a sufficient warrant that they will deserve the attention of the historical student.
Mr. M. A. Denham, the author of the interesting Collection of Proverbs and Popular Sayings relating to the Seasons, Weather, &c., published by the Percy Society, also intends to issue some Tracts (limited to fifty copies of each) illustrative of the antiquities of the northern parts of the kingdom. The first is to be on The Slogans or Slughorns of the North of England; the second, on "Some of the Manners and Customs" of the North.
We have received the following Catalogues:—Joseph Lilly's (7. Pall Mall) Catalogue of a Choice and Valuable Collection of Rare, Curious, and Useful Books; William Andrews' (7. Corn Street, Bristol) Catalogue, Part IV., 1850, Books just bought from the Deanery, Armagh, &c.; and J. Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street, Soho) Bibliotheca Historica et Topographica; Books illustrating the History, Antiquities, and Topography of Great Britain and Ireland.