A call has just been made for the purpose of forming an American Historical Association to deal with both the story of the past and with that of the immediate present. Professor C. K. Adams, of Michigan, Professor M. C. Tyler, of Cornell, and Professor Adams, of Johns Hopkins Universities, are the chief movers in the matter.
The Clarendon Press will publish in November a work entitled “The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt,” by Mr. A. J. Butler, Fellow of Brasenose College. The work will consist of two octavo volumes, the first being mainly architectural, the second dealing with church furniture, vestments, rites, and ceremonies. It will contain numerous plans and illustrations.
By the generosity of three of the subscribers, copies of Mr. Greenstreet’s autotype fac-simile of the Lincolnshire Survey, temp. Henry I., have been deposited in the Public Free Libraries at Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Sheffield, and in the Advocate’s Library, Edinburgh, the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
Early next year Mr. Quaritch will issue to subscribers Messrs. Herbert Jones’ work, entitled “The Princess Charlotte of Wales,” an illustrated monograph, which will contain reproductions in monochrome of a series of miniatures of the Princess from her cradle to her grave, painted from life by Charlotte Jones. The book will also comprise a memoir of the Princess, and selections from her correspondence. The edition will be limited to 250 copies.
Three pictures which are claimed to be works of J. W. M. Turner, have been brought to light at Exeter. They represent views of the interior of Exeter Cathedral, and have been stowed away for nearly fifty years as lumber. An Exeter hairdresser lately purchased the pictures from a furniture broker for a sovereign each. A judge of works of art has offered £1,500 for the three, but the owner has communicated with London experts, so as to place the authorship of the works beyond question.
The following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear among the contents of the magazines for October:—Contemporary Review, “Goethe;” Art Journal, “Landscapes in London: The Inns of Court,” “The Fountaine Collection,” and “Delft Ware;” Century Magazine, “The ‘Odyssey’ and its Epoch;” Gentleman’s Magazine, “A French Curé in the Sixteenth Century;” Harpers Magazine, “The Great Hall of William Rufus;” Le Livre, “Canterbury, its Cathedral, its Library,” &c.
With a view to perpetuating the memory of the French Walloon refugees who settled in Canterbury three centuries ago, the directors of the French Protestant Hospice in London have commissioned a well-known Kentish archæologist to transcribe the inscriptions on the tombstones in Canterbury and the neighbourhood, where many of the refugees lie buried. Of the Huguenot and other French exiles who found a home beneath the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral, and established in its crypt a church which exists to the present day, there are now but few descendants living.
The Mercers’ Chapel, Cheapside, has been reopened, after extensive repairs and alterations; the latter comprise new flooring, new and very handsome carved oak stalls and seats throughout, new choir stalls, prayer desk and pulpit. The fine old screen has been retained, as also all the oak panelling round the walls. The organ, one of Father Smith’s, has been entirely rebuilt and enlarged. The altar piece is not yet finished, but the three large frescoes are in position, the centre and largest panel representing the Ascension of our Lord. The whole of the roof has also been re-decorated, and a sun-light introduced into the lanthorn.
The second volume of “Topography and Natural History of Lofthouse, near Wakefield,” by Mr. George Roberts, of that place, is in the press. In addition to the continuation of the “Natural History and Rural Notes,” it will contain an account of past and present customs, notices of places of worship, further notes on the old Lofthouse families—Hipron, Watson, and Lyley; a revised list of church sun-dials; and a short memoir of Charles Forrest, the discoverer of the Rock sculptures on Rombalds Moor, near Ilkley. The volume will be privately issued to subscribers only.
At a recent meeting of the Academie des Inscriptions, M. Maspero read a report on his archæological work in Egypt during the past year. He dwells especially upon the new system by which the fellahs are encouraged to excavate on their own account by the guarantee that they may keep for themselves one-half of the objects they find. In this way the Boolak Museum has obtained during the past twelvemonths, with no expense beyond that of conveyance, about 2,000 objects of various interest.