L. B. L.
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
The Northern Antiquaries set their brethren in this country a noble example. Every year sees one or more of them engaged in the production of carefully-edited volumes of early Scandinavian history. We have now to record the publication, by Professor Munch, of the old Norse text of Kong Olaf Tryggvesön's Saga from a MS. in the Library at Stockholm which has not hitherto been made use of; and also, by the same gentleman, in conjunction with his friend Professor Unger, of an edition of the Saga Olafs Konungs ens Helga, from the earliest MS. in the library at Stockholm. Each work is introduced by a preface of great learning, and illustrated by a large body of valuable notes.
Those who have shared our regret, that the brilliant notices of books which occasionally appear in the columns of The Times should be presented in a form which scarcely admits of their being preserved, and also our satisfaction when Mr. Murray put forth his selection from them under the title of Essays from the Times, will be glad that the same publisher has issued in his Railway Reading a Second Series of them, comprising fourteen articles.
We may remind all lovers of beautiful illustrations of Mediæval Art, that Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell by auction on Monday next the entire stock of the magnificent publications of Mr. Henry Shaw, F.S.A., whose Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages are a type of the whole. Such an opportunity of securing copies at a reasonable rate will never occur again. While on the subject of sales, we may mention that Messrs. Puttick and Simpson announce a sale of Photographs. This is the first instance; but we may be sure, with the growing taste for these accurate and, in many cases, also artistic transcripts of nature, every season will see many similar sales.
At the anniversary of the Society of Antiquaries on Monday last, Admiral Smyth moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Bruce, on his retirement from the Treasurership, for his zeal and indefatigable exertions in that office. The manner in which the gallant Admiral's remarks were received showed, first, that the reforms advocated by Mr. Bruce now meet the general approval of the Society; and secondly, that the warmth of feeling which they had called forth on both sides has entirely disappeared.
Books Received.—Condé's History of the Arabs in Spain, translated from the Spanish, by Mrs. Jonathan Foster, in three volumes, Vol. I. Mr. Bohn deserves the best thanks of all lovers of history for this English translation—the first which has ever been made—of the admirable work of Condé. It is one of the most important volumes which he has published in his Standard Library.—The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Vol. II. The second volume of this amusing, gossiping, and egotistical work, comprises the period 1781-1786.—Pantomime Budgets, &c., a clever pamphlet in favour of prepaid taxation.—John Penry, the Pilgrim Martyr, 1559-1593, by John Waddington. A violent anti-church biography of Penry, whose share in the Marprelate Controversy Mr. Waddington disbelieves on very insufficient grounds.