NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

When we consider how many indications are still discoverable, by those who know how to look for them, of the influence which the incursions of the Danes and Northmen into Britain have exercised upon our language, customs, and social and political condition; and that even the most cursory glance at the map of these islands will show in so many local names indisputable evidence of Danish occupation—evidence which is amply confirmed by many of our archaisms or provincialisms, our popular customs and observances,—when these things are considered, it is obvious that a work which should give us the result of these incursions, if written by a competent hand, must prove of great and general interest. Just such a book has been issued by Mr. Murray, under the title of An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by J. J. A. Worsaae. All who had the pleasure of making Mr. Worsaae's acquaintance when he visited this country in 1846-47, were aware that he possessed two qualifications essentially necessary for the proper execution of the task which he had undertaken. For his archæological acquirements were made patent (even to those who were unable to study his various antiquarian publications in Danish and German) by the English version of his Primæval Antiquities of Denmark; while his thorough mastery over our language was such as to enable him to pursue his researches into the period of our country's history which he proposed to illustrate, without the slightest let or hindrance. With a theme, then, which may be considered as novel as it is interesting (for it is the first attempt to view the subject from the Danish side), and with such abilities to do it justice, it is no wonder that Mr. Worsaae has produced a work which will, we are sure, be found to possess the double merit of not only gratifying the antiquary, but also of interesting, instructing, and amusing the general reader.

To form a complete Encyclopædia of Classical Antiquity, it was necessary that to the Dictionaries of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, should be added a Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. That want is in the course of being supplied. The first Quarterly Part of such a Dictionary, called, for the sake of uniformity, "of Greek and Roman Geography," but including even Scriptural names, and so being in reality a Dictionary of Ancient Geography, edited by Dr. Smith, written by the principal contributors to the former works, and illustrated by numerous woodcuts, has just been issued. It equals its predecessors in its claims to the support of all students and lovers of classical learning; and we know no higher praise.

We learn from The Athenæum that Mr. George Stephens, the translator of Tegner's beautiful epic Frithiof's Saga, and whose intimate acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been shown by the collection of legends of that country which he has edited in conjunction with Hylten-Cavallius, and by the various works superintended by him for the Svenska Fornskrift-Sällskapet, a sort of Stockholm Camden Society, has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been appointed Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University there. The subject of his first course of lectures—to be delivered in the present month—is, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. After this we shall be quite prepared to hear of a Danish translation of this masterpiece of the Father of English Poetry, as a companion to the recently published Swedish translations of Shakspeare.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—The Rhymed Chronicle of Edward Manlove concerning the Liberties and Customs of the Lead Mines within the Wapentake of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, &c., edited by Thomas Tapping, Esq. This little tract (which with its valuable Glossary, List of Cases, &c., occupies but forty pages) is an extremely curious book; and the manner in which it has been edited reflects great credit upon Mr. Tapping.—Neander's General History of the Christian Religion and Church, vol. vi., forms the new volume of Bohn's Standard Library. The same indefatigable publisher has issued, as the new volume of his Classical Library, The Odes of Pindar, literally translated into English Prose, by Dawson W. Turner, M.A.; and, as if this was not sufficient, he has added the Metrical Version by the late Abraham Moore—a translation which he pronounces, and with great justice, to be distinguished for "poetry, scholarship, and taste."

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. Vol. I. Part I. (Several Copies are wanting, and it is believed that many are lying in London or Dublin.)

CH. THILLON (DE HALLE) NOUVELLE COLLECTION DES APOCRYPHES. Leipsic, 1832.

THEOBALD'S SHAKSPEARE RESTORED, ETC. 4to. 1726.

A SERMON preached at Fulham in 1810 by the REV. JOHN OWEN of Paglesham, on the death of Mrs. Prowse, Wicken Park, Northamptonshire (Hatchard).

FÜSSLEIN, JOH. CONRAD, BEYTRÄGE ZUR ERLÄUTERUNG DER KIRCHEN-REFORMATIONS-GESCHICHTE DES SCHWEITZERLANDES. 5 vols. Zurich, 1741.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.