Notes on Books, Etc.
The noble President of the Society of Antiquaries is fast bringing to completion the cheaper and revised edition of his History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783. The sixth volume, which is now before us, embraces the eventful six years 1774-1780, which saw the commencement of the great struggle with America, which ended in the independence of the United States. In this, as in his preceding volumes, the new materials which Lord Mahon has been so fortunate as to collect from the family papers of the representatives of the political leaders of the period, and which he has inserted in his appendix, contribute very materially to the value and importance of his history.
Cheshire; its Historical and Literary Associations, illustrated in a series of Biographical Sketches; and The Cheshire and Lancashire Historical Collector, a small 8vo. sheet originally issued every month, but now every fortnight, in consequence of increase of materials, and the great encouragement which the undertaking has received, are two contributions towards Cheshire topography, local history, bibliography, &c., for which the good men of the Palatinate are indebted to the zeal of Mr. T. Worthington Barlow, of the Society of Gray's Inn.
It is always a subject of gratification to us when we see cheap yet handsome reprints of our standard authors; for no better proof can be given of the increase among us not only of a reading public, but of a public who are disposed to read well. It is therefore with no small pleasure that we have received from Mr. Routledge copies of his five shilling edition of The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, from the Text, and with the Notes and Glossary of Thomas Tyrwhitt, condensed and arranged under the Text. It is obvious that considerable labour has been taken by the editor in its preparation, for he has not contented himself with merely transferring the contents of Tyrwhitt's Notes and Glossary to their proper places beneath the text; but has availed himself of the labours of Messrs. Craik, Saunders, Sir H. Nicolas, and our able correspondent A. E. B., to give completeness to what is a very useful edition of old Dan Chaucer's masterpiece. We have to thank the same publisher for a corresponding edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene; so that no lover of those two glorious old poets need any longer want a cheap and compact edition of them.
Books Received.—History of the Guillotine, revised from the Quarterly Review, by the Right Hon. J. W. Croker, which forms the new part of Murray's Railway
Reading, is not only valuable as a précis of all that is known upon this very obscure subject, but for all its illustration of the difficulty of arriving at historical truth.—A Love Story; being the History of the Courtship and Marriage of Dr. Dove of Doncaster, that delightful episode in Southey's most delightful book, The Doctor, forms Part L. of Longman's Traveller's Library.—The First Italian Book appears a very successful attempt on the part of Signor Pifferi and Mr. Dawson W. Turner to furnish a companion to the First French Book of that accomplished scholar, the late Rev. T. K. Arnold.
BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.
Torriano Piazza Universale di Proverbi Italiani. London, 1668. Folio.
Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica. Vol. IX.