THE MANNERS OF MY TIME. By C. L. Hawkins Dempster. Richards. 1920. 10s. 6d.
Miss Dempster, who died in 1913, was authoress in her day of certain novels, of which one, called Vera, was translated into Russian, and another, Blue Roses, was to be found on every bookstall in America. It met, she tells us here, with the favour of the late Duke of Albany. "Ah," said his Royal Highness, "that is a wonderful book! But why did you make it so sad? Please to make your next one end well." "The next one will be all right, sir. It is a Scotch story, and it does end well." That was at Cannes, where Miss Dempster lived and moved in a society of exiled kings, Russian grand dukes, princes, statesmen, high ladies and clergymen. The manners of such folk are without doubt as worthy of record as those of any other people whomsoever; but Miss Dempster, in the letters to an unnamed uncle, of which her book chiefly consists, contents herself for the most part with recording their names, entrances and exits upon the scene of the Riviera. We are irresistibly reminded of Captain Sumph in Pendennis.
"I remember poor Byron, Hobhouse, Trelawny, and myself dining with Cardinal Mezzocado at Rome," Captain Sumph began, "and we had some Orvieto wine for dinner, which Byron liked very much. And I remember how the Cardinal regretted that he was a single man. We went to Aix-la-Vecchia two days afterwards, where Byron's yacht was—and, by Jove, the Cardinal died within three weeks; and Byron was very sorry, for he rather liked him."
Incidentally, one may call attention to the letterpress. On page 148 a lady is referred to in a note as "a grandchild of Mr. Nassau, senior, now married to Mr. St. Loe Strachey." It is not, we believe, even true of that particular grandchild of Nassau senior's. We read of "the great coups de logis" of a castle in Normandy, of "the causus belli of the Franco-Prussian War." On page 213 we have an epitaph which is worth preservation:
LIC JACIT
CASPARUS HAÜSER
ÆNIGMA
PIÙ LEMPORIS
IGNOTO NATIVITAS
OCCULTA MORS
1883.
Sic, or lic, at any rate jacit, or lies, the record of the unfortunate Caspar in this work.
THE BRITISH ACADEMY: SEALS AND DOCUMENTS. By Reginald L. Poole. Oxford University Press, 2s. 6d. net.
Recently an important transaction was nearly stopped because one of the parties saw on an official document what he took to be the initials of a particular person. The letters were, however, only an indication where the seal should be affixed. Dr. Poole's Seals and Documents, an offprint from the Transactions of the British Academy, deals with earlier days, and may induce similar ignorance. It is but twenty odd pages long, but full of matter which the judicious reader will value as from a master of diplomatic. It summarises much learning, and suggests, by the way, several inquiries, e.g., as to the displacement of papyrus by parchment; the period at which a seal to close a secret letter—like our modern sealing-wax—went out of fashion; and the use of the diminutive sigillum instead of the classical signum for seal. Dr. Poole shows how easy it was for a seal to be lost, and mentions that a unique document in the Bodleian has been "irreparably mutilated" under the direction of the late Librarian. When parchment was used, thin pieces of the actual material could be stripped from it to tie it up with a seal affixed. It is odd that this simple practice has not been carried further back. Much of interest is given concerning the Papal bull, a bulla of lead used in warm countries where wax would not retain its distinctness. Bulls employed by the universal "Papa" remind us of the classical "bulla" worn by boys. The most ancient in existence is that of Pope Deusdedit (615-8). In England the bull is earlier than the wax seal, but the double-pendent seal which led to the Great Seal is an English invention. The whole subject is confused by the existence of forgeries, which need erudition like Dr. Poole's to dismiss.