NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
The landing of Charles Edward Stuart, and the "Seven Men of Moidart," on the memorable 25th July, 1745, was the opening of the last, and, in many respects, the most brilliant and stirring chapter in the Romance of English History. That Mr. Murray has therefore done wisely in the publication, in a separate form, of The Forty-Five: by Lord Mahon, being the Narrative of the Insurrection of 1745, extracted from Lord Mahon's History of England, there can be little doubt. The memory of that eventful period is so kept alive among us, by snatches of Jacobite ballads, and recitals of the strange incidents in which it was so rich, that this separate publication of so much of Lord Mahon's History of England from the Peace of Utrecht (1713) to the Peace of Paris (1763) as relates to its "moving accidents by flood and field," will be a great boon to those numerous readers who have neither means, time, nor opportunity to peruse Lord Mahon's interesting narrative in that valuable contribution to our national history for which it was originally written.
Some time since the British Museum purchased for about 120l. a volume containing no less than sixty-four early French Farces and Moralities, printed between the year 1542 and 1548, of which a very large proportion was entirely unknown. How important a collection of materials for the early history of the Drama, especially in France, is contained in this precious volume, we learn from a work which has reached us, "pas destiné au commerce," under the title of Description Bibliographique et Analyse d'un Livre unique qui se trouve au Musée Britannique, which contains a short but able analysis of the various pieces which formed the volume thus fortunately secured for our national library. Though the name of the editor is stated, on the title-page, to be Tridace-Nafe-Théobrome, Gentilhomme Breton, we strongly suspect that no such gentleman is to be found; and that we are really indebted for this highly curious and interesting book to a gentleman who has already laid the world of letters under great obligation, M. Delpierre, the accomplished Secretary of Legation of the Belgian Embassy.
Literature, Science, and the Arts have sustained a heavy loss in the death of that accomplished patron of them—that most amiable nobleman the Marquess of Northampton. His noble simplicity and single-mindedness of character, and his unaffected kindliness of manner, endeared him to all who had the good fortune to be honoured with his acquaintance, and by all of whom his death will be long and most deeply regretted.
Mr. Sandys, F.S.A., of Canterbury, has issued a Prospectus for the immediate publication, by Subscription, of the Consuetudines Kanciæ: a History of Gavelkind and other remarkable Customs in the County of Kent.
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and four following days, a very select and valuable Library, the property of a gentleman deceased, including among other choice lots, two early MSS. of the Divina Comedia, and an extensive, rare, and interesting series of early editions of Dante.
Books Received.—Clark's Introduction to Heraldry (London, Washbourne), fourteenth edition, which contains a chapter and plates, which are entirely new, on Heraldry in conjunction with Architecture;—Hints and Queries intended to promote the Preservation of Antiquities and the Collection and Arrangement of Information on the Subject of Local History and Tradition—a most useful little tract, highly creditable to the Kilkenny Archæological Society, by whose order it has been printed for circulation;—The Peril of the Papal Aggression; or, the Case as it stands between the Queen and the Pope, by Anglicanus. London, Bosworth.
Catalogues Received.—Charles Skeet's (21. King William Street, Charing Cross) Catalogue No. 1. for 1851, of a Miscellaneous Collection of Books, New and Second-hand; John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue, Part CXX. (No. 1. for 1851) of Old and New Books; Edward Stibbs' (331. Strand) Catalogue, Part II., of a valuable Collection of Books, including an extensive purchase of Italian, French, and Spanish Literature; Bernard Quaritch's (16. Castle Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue No. 23. of European and Oriental Philology and General Literature; John Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue No. XVII. of Books Old and New.