E. N. W.
Southwark, June 30. 1851.
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
A Glossary of Terms used for Articles of British Dress and Armour, by the Rev. John Williams (ab Ithel), classifies alphabetically the several names which our British forefathers applied to the different portions of their garments and military weapons, and supplies the reader with their English synonymes; and, in the majority of cases, cites corroborative passages from documents in which the original terms occur. Its value to the antiquaries of the Principality is sufficiently obvious; and as Celtic elements may still be traced in our language, it will clearly be found of equal utility to their English brethren.
The Golden and Silver Ages. Two Plays by Thomas Heywood, with an Introduction and Notes by J. Payne Collier, Esq. (which form the last work issued by the Shakspeare Society), will be read with great interest by the members; and, as completing the second volume of the collected edition of the works of Thomas Heywood, will give great satisfaction to those who urged upon the Shakspeare Society the propriety of printing an edition of the works of this able and prolific dramatist.
In his Manual of the Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Mind, by James Carlile, D.D., the author has undertaken to write a popular treatise on an abstruse subject; and though he exhibits pains and method, yet we can hardly think that he has succeeded in his difficult task. One mistake he has evidently made. He seeks his illustrations too much from recent events, the Gorham controversy, the presidency of Louis Napoleon, and the like; references which are more calculated to degrade a great subject than to popularise it.
In The Gentleman's Magazine for the present month our readers will find a very able article, to which we beg to direct their attention, on the present state of English Historical Literature, the accessibility of our Historical Materials and the Record Offices. The article has apparently been called forth by a Memorial, addressed to the Master of the Rolls, requesting "that persons who are merely engaged in historical inquiry, antiquarian research, and other literary pursuits connected therewith, should have permission granted to them to have access to the Public Records, with the Indexes and Calendars, without payment of any Fee." This important document is signed by all the principal historical and antiquarian writers of the day: we should think, therefore, that there can be little fear of their prayer being refused. The writer of the article in the Gentleman's Magazine has omitted two curious facts, which deserve mention,—one that Pinkerton was stopped in the progress of his History of Scotland by the fees for searches in the Scotch Record Offices; the other, that those fees in those very offices have recently been remitted.
Mr. Douglas Allport has issued Proposals for the publication by subscription of a volume entitled Kits Coty House, a Monograph, which, as it is to treat not only of Kits Coty House, but of its Flora and Fauna, the Druidical Circles of Addington and Colebrook, the Antiquarian Relics and Traditions of the neighbourhood, Boxley and its Rood of Grace, Chaucer and the Pilgrim's Road, and other vestiges of bygone times, clearly has within its subject the materials for an amusing and interesting volume.