Cad (Vol. i., p.250.).—Jamieson derives this word, or rather its Scotch diminutive, "cadie," from the French, cadet. I have heard it fancifully traced to the Latin "cauda."
W.J. MERCER.
MISCELLANEOUS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
Mr. Disraeli's work, entitled Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, has been pronounced by one of the great critical authorities of our own days, "the most important work" on the subject that modern times have produced. Those who differ from Mr. Disraeli's view of the character of the king and the part he played in the great drama of his age may, in some degree, dissent from this eulogy. None will, however, deny that the work, looking to its anecdotical character, and the great use made in it of sources of information hitherto unemployed, is one of the most amusing as well as interesting histories of that eventful period. While those who share with the editor, Mr. B. Disraeli, and many reflecting men, the opinion that in the great questions which are now agitating the public mind, history is only repeating itself; and that the "chapters on the Genius of the Papacy; on the Critical Position of our earlier Protestant Sovereigns with regard to their Roman Catholic Subjects, from the consequences of the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; on the Study of Polemical Divinity prevalent at the commencement of the Seventeenth Century, and kindred themes, are, in fact, the history of the events, the thoughts, the passions, and the perplexities of the present agitated epoch," will agree that the republication of the work at this moment is at once opportune and acceptable.
We have received a copy of Dr. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: a Collection of Old Ballad Tunes, chiefly from rare MSS. and Early printed Books, deciphered from the obsolete Notation, and harmonized and arranged according to Modern Usage. If any thing could add to the extensive popularity which Percy's work has continued to enjoy ever since its first appearance, (for have we not Washbourne's handsome reprint of it, published within this year or two?) it must be the quaint and racy melodies, the "old antique strains," to which these fine old ballads were anciently sung. Dr. Rimbault, who combines great musical acquirements with a rich store of antiquarian knowledge, in giving us these, has produced a work as carefully executed as it is original in its character; one which can only be exceeded in interest by the Musical Illustrations of Shakspeare's Plays, which we are glad to see promised from the same competent authority.
We are at length enabled to announce that The Treatise on Equivocation, so often referred to in our columns, is about to be published under the editorship of Mr. Jardine, whose attention has long been directed to it from its connexion with the Gunpowder Conspiracy; and whose intimate acquaintance with that subject, as shown in his Criminal Trials, is a sufficient pledge for his ability to do justice to this curious and important historical document.
We regret to learn, from the Catalogue of the Museum of Mediæval Art, collected by the late Mr. Cottingham, which has been very carefully drawn up, with a preface by Mr. Shaw, that, if the Family are disappointed in disposing of the Museum to the Government, or by private contract, it will be submitted to Public Sale in April next, and a Collection of the most ample and varied examples of Mediæval Architecture ever brought together, which has been formed at a vast outlay both of labour and cost, will be dispersed, and be thereby rendered inaccessible and valueless to the architectural student.
The Rev. W.H. Kelke has published some Notices of Sepulchral Monuments in English Churches, a work which is not intended for professed antiquaries, but for that large class of persons who, although they have some taste for the subject of which it treats, have neither time nor inclination to enter deeply into it, and as will, we have no doubt, be very acceptable to those to whom it is immediately addressed.