S. M.
The last of the Palæologi (Vol. v., p. 280.).
—This is a most interesting subject; I beg to refer your readers to Archæologia, vol. xviii. p. 93., and to Burn's History of Foreign Refugees, p. 230.
J. S. B.
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
The readers of "N. & Q." who are lovers of Folk Lore are, we well know, very numerous; those who take an interest in that subject, and are at the same time acquainted with the great philological acquirements of the learned editor of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, we have no doubt shared our satisfaction at the announcement that Mr. Thorpe had undertaken a work, comprehensive yet not too voluminous, in which he would exhibit the ancient mythology and principal mythologic traditions of Scandinavia and the North of Germany. The book is now before us; and in three small volumes, entitled Northern Mythology, comprising the principal popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands, Mr. Thorpe has presented us with such an amount of information illustrative of the intimate connexion subsisting between the heathenism of the Germanic nations of the Continent and that of our Saxon forefathers, gathered from the writings of the best scholars of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the Low Countries, as was never before within the reach of the mere English student, and, in so doing, has produced a book which the general reader will devour for the sake of the amusement to be found in it, the philosopher for the view of the human mind which it presents, and the antiquary for the abundance of new light which it throws upon many of the most obscure points in the Folk Lore of Merry England. We shall probably often have occasion to refer to it, in illustration of communications upon a subject which is yet far from exhausted.
We were reminded, by the excellent explanation of the word Bigot, quoted by a correspondent in our last Number (p. 331.) from the Rev. R. Chevenix Trench's Lectures On the Study of Words, of a duty we owed to our readers, namely, that of calling their attention more directly to this admirable little volume. The Lectures, which are "On the Morality in Words," "On the History in Words," "On the Rise of New Words," "On the Distinction of Words," and "The Schoolmaster's Use of Words," may be said to be a continuous and well-digested series of proofs of the truth of the remark, that "there are cases in which more knowledge of more value may be conveyed by the history of a word, than by the history of a campaign." The book is, indeed, altogether a delightful one, calculated not only to delight the understanding, but do so in such a spirit as shall leave the reader a better as well as a wiser man.
Fraser's Magazine for the present month opens with an article on a subject which will doubtless interest many of our readers. It is entitled The Colleges of Oxford, and exhibits, with much clearness, a sketch of their origin and history, and is obviously introductory to the consideration of their future policy.
The Afghans, the Ten Tribes, and the Kings of the East. The Druses, the Moabites, by the Right Hon. Sir G. H. Rose, is, as the ample title shows, an endeavour to establish the identity of the Afghans with the Ten Tribes, and of the Druses with the Moabites; and the argument is carried on in a manner which reflects the highest credit upon the learning and reverent spirit of the writer.