No More Learning

Callwellfamily, that she attains a very high level.
her own memories of Ross, the seat of her
James Payn's 'Some Literary Recollec- Old
tions,' and the story of the proceeds of a
(Blackwood & Sons. )
Her experience is certainly ample, since
first article in Household Words being
she recollects the great storm of 1839 and
converted into a Berkshire pig, which In this most entertaining volume Miss the havoc it wrought in the West. She
was meant as a gift for a Devonshire Callwell
, whom we had credited with omits, however, one curious effect, of
tutor, but ran away at Bristol. We notice belonging to the other sex, gives us a
which she may be glad to hear from us.
the discovery of Sala and Wilkie Collins, picture of what Galway was in the days from that day on, we used to be told,
and the immense zest with which details of its greatness and its decay ; she also fairies became extremely scarce. They
of the theatre were arranged. Alas! the gives us sketches of the peregrinations of
was all blew away in the great storum,
Guild of Literature and Art failed, and two observers through Ireland in the
we have often heard it expressed.
Bulwer Lytton's play ‘Not so Bad as later eighteenth century. Their books are
She tells us, among many characteristic
well known to students of Irish social stories, one of a poor woman who refused
We Seem' was, as somebody said, not so
good as it ought to be.
history, but not to the general reader, who
will therefore find them new, and very in- husband. She said she required every
to employ a doctor to visit her dying
Of Wills himself and his wife, great teresting. Lastly, she supplies from the penny she had to give her good man a
in Scottish humour, the Preface offers
some pleasant
glimpses
. There were differ- store of her own
memories delightful things decent wake. We can quote a Northern
a
ences, of course, between him and his about the life in Galway sixty years ago, parallel, where a man prayed his squire
chief, in the most serious of which, con-
and the doings of her grandfather, Martin
to come and see his wife, who was danger-
of Ross, and her cousin, Martin of Ballyna- ously ill. The squire refused on the
cerning R. H. Horne, Wills seems to us
distinctly in the right; but the friendship hinch. The
latter was the king
of Western ground that he was no doctor,
and neither
distinctly in the right; but the friendship Connaught more than Lord Clanricarde could nor dared prescribe for her. But
which speedily grew up between them was
was in Eastern Galway, and was the finest he urged the man to send for the local
unclouded to the end, and we cannot doubt
that the affection of Dickens was fully follies of the Irish gentry, all of whom had
specimen in his day of the virtues and
physician. The answer was,
6 No! if
deserved. There are portraits of Dickens, English blood in their veins, to which doctor”; and he added piously, after a
you won't come to see her, I 'll send for no
Wills, Wilkie Collins, and Thackeray, they owed most of their daring. There
whom Dickens wished to rebuke for
pause, If the Lord wants her, He must
distorted praise of the Charterhouse; and is no question that the tribes of Galway have her. ” The
real motive was doubt-
were all English settlers, yet were there less the same in both cases
- sordid
there is a good Index.
The twenty Vandyck gravures which popular sense ?
any people more typically Irish, in the
economy, but the contrast in the ex-
cuse well illustrates the contrasts of race
represent Mr. Lewin's ideas of Characters popular sense ?
‘
from Dickens' are well reproduced, and a The only part of the book which we will and creed, which we could develope at
notable addition to illustrations of the criticize is the chapter on the ‘Penal
length, if there were space for such a
digression.
novels. Mr. Lewin swells the protest Laws,' in which the author, going beyond
against the excessively fantastic quality of her own experience, has, we think, been The later chapters of the book supply
Phiz, and, though his drawings are un- misled by the current views of national- a great number of these good stories,
equal, most of them are decidedly good. istic authors. Even Lecky was carried
some very old, but many to us new, and
Pickwick remains as he was ; his figure is away by their dissimulation. ' No doubt
told in such a way that the Irish reader
fixed for ever ; but we applaud the novel the text of the Penal Laws, mostly copied feels himself taking part in a bright con-
|
conceptions of Mr. Squeers, the Fat Boy, from Louis XIV. 's Règles against the versation, to which he longs to contribute
and Silas Wegg, as well as the courage Huguenots, was horribly tyrannous. But his share. The author tells us, for ex-
which makes Little Nell something less there is ample evidence that they were ample, of a weary fox-hunter startled
than a beauty. Sydney Carton is ex- almost a dead letter, and that people from his slumbers in an inn by some
cessively sentimental, and hardly worn have to hunt for cases in which their fumbling about his head, and finding
enough in the face. The related figures injustice was put in practice. A good a with knife standing over
in the background are slightly, but effec-proof of this is the fact that the same
tively sketched.
story has done such yeoman's duty, and
Mr. Matz introduces the drawings in is repeated in all the books on the subject. ““I'm sorry to be disturbin' ye, sir,' was
a proper spirit of enthusiasm, and points It is concerned with a Catholic gentleman the apology, but, sure, the house was out
out the lasting vitality of Dickens's whose fine pair of horses were claimed by of pillows intirely, an' we put a side of bacon
under honor's head. I was just con-
conceptions. The generic term "a fat
a Protestant as being worth more than 51. thrivin to get a few rashers off for the
boy” recalls, he remarks,“ the one and each, the result being that the owner shot quality's breakfast without disturbin’ ye,
only fat boy who matters at all. ” We them rather than submit to such spolia- when woke. '
may add that in this case Nature has tion. It appears again in the present book,
plagiarized from Dickens. Kent has to but reduced to a one-horse affair
Kent has to but reduced to a one-horse affair. The Has the venerable author heard of another
day a man who was a famous fat boy of names of the actors in the tragedy we occasion on which a waiter disturbed a
Gargantuan proportions.
have never found mentioned, and it was weary man, and told him it was time to
evidently thought as great an outrage get up, to which he strongly objected ?
It is fitting that we should close our then as it would be now. We are glad
notice with a reference to The Dickensian, to see the horror of the tale reduced this stairs to have breakfast, and ye must get
“ But the gentlemen is waitin' down-
for which Mr. Matz is also responsible. time. There were certainly scores of
Among the features of interest in last Catholic gentlemen in those days who without me?
Why must I ? Can't they go on
I don't know them, and
year's volume are an article by Mr. E. J: owned good horses, and even took part in don't want their company. Go away, and
Hardy on Yorkshire Schools ? (one of the the horse - races so fashionable in the leave me alone. ”
few cases in which a search for the Ireland of 1740-80; and it is now shown on that it 's the tablecloth ye are sleepin' on,
Ah, don't ye know
“ original is legitimate); a letter- the unbiased evidence of strangers, who and we can't do without it? ”
hitherto, we believe, unpublished—from knew all about these Penal Laws, that
Dickens to Mr. J. S. Herbert, reporting the most prosperous district of Ireland
One old story is spoilt here in the telling.
dishonesty on the part of a ticket-collector
was one almost exclusively occupied by It is that of the innkeeper whose wine
on the North Kent line; and · Some Notes
Roman Catholics.
was so excellent that he was knighted by a
on Plagiarism,' by Mr. J. Cuming Walters.
drunken Lord Lieutenant who spent the
Mr. Walters seeks to show that Reade, But we pass willingly from this slight night there. In the morning the man
in chap. xxviii. of “ Put Yourself in his and natural flaw in a book not pro- was sent for and asked to regard it as
Place,' was plagiarizing from Dickens's fessedly historical, yet presenting a picture mere frolic, to which he replied that he
* Poor Man's Tale of a Patent. '
of a social life gone by for ever. It is I was quite ready to do so,
but that her
a
a
man
a
him :
2
ye
a
up. "
G
66
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## p. 153 (#129) ############################################

No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
153
9
the one
war
was
we
we
Here, he rightly says, “ we touch the
Ladyship would not hear of it. ” According
to Miss Callwell he said : I must consult
NAVAL STRATEGY.
secret of England's success against Powers
my wife on the matter,” and her reply is
so greatly superior to herself in military
WE congratulate ourselves on the good
then given.
!
fortune which brought us nearly at the strength"-a secret first penetrated by
Bacon, who gave it words in the “ famous
When we read about the splendours of
same time essays by Mr. Corbett and
aphorism,
old Galway, we cannot but regret that Capt. Mahan, the two men who may
the author did not tell us more of St. be called the official exponents of naval
* He that commands the sea is at great
Nicholas's Church, which is one of the strategy in their respective countries liberty, and may take as much or as little of
few old churches still in use in Ireland. -Great Britain and the United States ;
the war as he will, whereas those that be
The south aisle, for example, is about and the more so as from the difference theless in great straits. ”
strongest by land are many times never-
12 ft. wider than either the nave or north of their positions
a civilian
aisle, which is surely most exceptional; (a barrister), the other a naval officer The full meaning of this, Mr. Corbett
and there are among the tombs of the they approach their subject from thinks, remained hidden to many, till
-
tribes at least one of great beauty, and different directions, and have treated Clausewitz, blundering in the dark,
several of much interest. The architecture it on different lines ; so that we have stumbled across it, but did not live to
of the streets, where the great stone the interest of watching how, by different know what it was. “To the end," he
mansions of the merchants are falling routes, they arrive at results essentially says, it would seem that Clausewitz
to pieces, shows a style quite peculiar, the same. They are, to begin with,
which is well worth a monograph by a entirely at one in holding war by sea as
was unaware that he had found an expla-
specialist. According to Miss Callwell, much à chapter of war as war by land ; problems in history – the expansion of
nation of one of the most inscrutable
or rather her authorities, Galway was and if Mr. Corbett treats of it as such at England, at least so far as it has been due
ruined suddenly and completely by its greater length and with greater emphasis to successful war. That a small country
a
capture by Cromwellians, who
turned out than Capt. Mahan, it is perhaps because with
a weak army should have been able
the tribes, occupied the city, burnt stair: he is writing for a people which-rooted to gather to herself the most desirable
cases and panellings, and left it a mass of though it is in maritime power-applies regions of the earth, and to gather them at
ruins. If this be all true, it is again the term
only to the Army ; is a paradox to which such Powers find it
something curiously exceptional, for it the Secretary for War deals with the hard to be reconciled. The phenomenon
never the policy of Cromwell to Army only, and the War Office directs seemed always a matter of chance-an
destroy the trade of a thriving city, and of the administration of the Army. Thus, accident without any foundation in the
one that did not resist his army, or cause while Capt. Mahan devotes himself essential constants of war. It remained
him loss. But Irish history is so full of to establishing the equality of the ad- for Clausewitz, unknown to himself, to dis-
.
fables
convenues that venture to
vantage which a force has when oper-
cover that explanation, and he reveals it
suspend our judgment till we hear the ating on internal lines, whether by sea or
to us in the inherent strength of limited
war, when means and conditions are favour-
matter critically discussed by an un- land, Mr. Corbett introduces his subject able for its use. '
biased historian.
with the remark that
We have spoken of the length and
Mr. Corbett is perhaps attributing too
are accustomed. . . . from lack of a
quantity of the author's experience. Not scientific habit of thought, to speak of naval
much weight to Clausewitz's discovery.
It
less valuable is the quality of it, for she strategy and military strategy as though
may
have been such to Continental
comes from a family which has main- they were distinct branches of knowledge Powers, but it was certainly known to
tained itself in spite of all the vicissitudes which had no common ground. The theory Clive and Pitt the best part of a hundred
of landlords, and still owns the old of war reveals that, embracing them both, years before Clausewitz wrote ;
and
Georgian house at Ross. Robert Martin, there is a larger strategy which regards the since to them, it was also, we may as-
a famous wit (often called Ballyhooley), ordinates their action and indicates the lines indeed, to whom it was of importance or
fleet and army as one weapon, which co-
sume, known to many others—to all,
lived and died in his mansion, and what on which each must move to realise the full interest, though they may not have given
his immediate relations can do is well power of both. "
known to the public in . The Recollections He is thus led on to illustrate the peculiar Mr. Corbett's service. By whatever name
it the technical names which are now at
of an Irish R. M. ' In the wild society
around them, and taking part in it strength of the two arms--sword, and it is called, however, the advantage is
all, this branch of the Martins survived buckler, perhaps, rather than “one very real, and has been practically known
and still survives. Any one who knows weapon "--acting in unison in what has by the English for more than 300 years.
Galway will appreciate a certain force which has been, in the main, to the Japan in her recent war against Russia
been happily called "amphibious war, Something of the same kind was held by
in the answer given to the question :
,
How does it come that co. Galway has advantage of Great Britain, and is for the possession of Korea. That the
the smallest percentage of lunatics in almost unknown to foreign nations. It material strength of Russia was enorm-
Ireland ?
“My dear sir, you must reflect is, primarily, that“ where the geographical | ously greater than that of Japan was
that in a population where everybody, is
conditions are favourable, we are able by manifest-
partially insane, it is not easy to pick of force our army will have to deal with”;
the use of our navy to restrict the amount
“so manifest that everywhere upon the
out the patients.
and secondly, that we have frequently enemy was regarded as the only admissible
Continent, where the overthrow of your
There were tragedies too, and the book been able
ends with one of the most affecting.
form of war, the action of the Japanese in
“ to establish ourselves in the territorial resorting to hostilities was regarded as
Martin of Ballynahinch, after a wild and object before our opponent can gather madness. Only in England, with her tra-
reckless life, died in 1847, at the very strength to prevent
that the dition and instinct for what an island Power
crisis of the great famine, leaving an only
daughter, heiress of 200,000 acres--the by endeavouring to turn us out. "
enemy. . . . must conform to our opening may achieve by the lower means,
Japan considered to have any reasonable
vast country beyond Lough Corrib. His
chance of success. '
debts were still "vaster, and his creditors, Some Principles of Maritime Strategy. By
swooping down upon his property, sold
The position was, in fact, somewhat
Julian S. Corbett. (Longmans & Co. )
everything and left the great heiress a
similar to that of the Allies in respect of
beggar, in the dolorous time when every
Naval Strategy compared and contrasted with
the Crimea in 1854–5, but more favourable,
the Principles and Practice of Military
one was full of his own troubles.
as there was no danger of a counterstroke,
She
Operations on Land. By Capt. A. T.
actually went as an emigrant among the
Mahan. (Sampson Low & Co. )
such as compelled England and France
starving poor to America, where she The Betrayal : being a Record of. Facts It was thus that the earlier stages of the
to keep a powerful fleet in the Baltic.
died forgotten and unknown.
concerning Naval Policy and Administra-
tion from the Year 1902 to the Present Time. war were entirely to the gain of Japan ;
By Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. (P. S. when she afterwards lost sight of the
King & Son. )
advantage of limiting the terrain, and, by
7
us. . . . SO
was
3)


## p. 154 (#130) ############################################

154
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
a
once
a
66
GE
f
man.
I
te
0
IL
on
CG
one
al
advancing into Manchuria, measured her this view as unsound; as shown to be so
strength against that of Russia, the result historically. Such a ' fleet in being,' inferior, | The Life of the Right Rev. Ernest Roland
was comparative failure. The mistake, should not be accepted by an enemy as a Wilberforce, First Bishop of Newcastle-
which cost her dear, Mr. Corbett attributes sufficient deterrent under ordinary circum.
to her being under the influence of the the Japanese did not so accept it. '
stances. It has not been so in the past, and
on-Tyne, and afterwards Bishop of
Chichester. By J. B. Atlay. (Smith,
Continental school of purely military
Elder & Co. )
strategy, which has “ a natural difficulty of the successful transport of the Japanese THE Bishop of Texas
He continues to speak in some detail
in conceiving a war-plan that does not
racily
culminate in a Jena or a Sedan. ”
army, notwithstanding the threat of the described his episcopal brother at Chi-
Russian “ fleet in being” in Port Arthur. chester as“ pretty well fixed. ” The same
When he passes on to speak of the But he does not decide whether the authority wrote years afterwards that
command of the sea,” Mr. Corbett forms Russian fleet was in real, tactical being, or for himself the Bishop's “ picture with
the eminently sane conclusion that only in visible being ; whether it had not his wife and children grouped round
even permanent general command can
been made so sensible of its inferiority to
him had symbolized. . . . a hundred
never, in practice, be absolute. No degree anything required of it as to be without
No degree anything required of it as to be without times the ideal of an Episcopal home in
of naval superiority can ensure our com-
any tactical value. This must be, as it the old Mother Country. " Bishop Ernest
”
munications against sporadic attack from always has been, a matter for the judgment Wilberforce himself referred to “ the almost
detached cruisers or even raiding squadrons, of the Commander-in-Chief. Hundreds of awe-ful happiness of his married life. ”
if they be boldly led and are prepared to instances might be adduced to show that A bishop at forty-three, a man not of
risk destruction. Even after Hawke's deci- visible and tactical being are by no his famous father's mark, but generally
sive victory at Quiberon had completed the
overthrow of the enemy's sea forces, a
means the same ; and that success in or conspicuous and successful, he may seem
British transport was captured between restraint from any operation must depend to the average layman the type of the
Cork and Portsmouth, and an Indiaman in on the correct solution of the problem. “ well-fixed
As it happens, he
sight of the Lizard, while Wellington's
complaints in the Peninsula of the insecurity has most to say is the necessity of con-
But the point on which Capt. Mahan
was more: strong, as the athletic figure
of his communications are well known.
”
and steadfast gaze shown in the frontis-
centration, to which he is driven by the piece of this volume suggest ; effective ;
When these last had any real meaning, existence the noisy existence, it would by no means all things to all men, but
they were due to the activity of American seem-of a party in the United States in esteemed in the long run by those who
privateers, which had not then felt the favour of dividing their fleet equally disagreed with him.
A
“missionary
heavy hand of the British Navy; but between the Atlantic and Pacific, so as to bishop,” he saw one clue to life, and fol-
there is no doubt about the breaches of be ready to meet, on the one side, any lowed it. He had, says his biographer,
security after Hawke's great victory, European enemy,
,
the other any
a burning love for his Master and
including, as they did, not only commercial Asiatic. In the present state of geo- Saviour, a fierce desire to win souls to
and other losses such as those just graphy, with no possible way for the two Christ. ” He prevailed in life, and at
named, but the celebrated cruise of divisions to join, except the long sea route the end he died swiftly and painlessly.
Thurot in the winter of 1759-60, which, through the Straits of Magellan, such a
On many pages of his record
though eventually suppressed, was able proposal seems as suicidal as it is ignorant; hesitates to say whether such a
to do much mischief before the end came. but there are apparently men in the United has been more fortunate or more good. ”
Similarly, Mr. Corbett will not allow the States who entertainit-men, too, of The quotation is from Stevenson’s memoir
magical influence which has been claimed some education,
since Capt. Mahan
has of Fleeming Jenkin, of which Mr. Atlay's
for the “ Fleet in Being,” even if that some hopes of showing them the absurdity work occasionally reminds us. The happy,
phrase be understood to mean a fleet which of it. But though able to read, such men warrior in life, especially ecclesiastical
is able and ready to issue from its harbour must be supposed to be ignorant of history, life, is not usually a good subject.
and to carry on warlike operations. Of or Capt. Mahan would have appealed to Writing at the request of Mrs. Ernest
course a fleet in merely visible or material the instances in which the French Navy, Wilberforce, and himself bearing one
being, without physical or moral strength, trying to effect a junction by the much of the honoured names of the Anglican
is not “ in being in
any tactical sense. shorter line from Toulon to Brest Bench, Mr. Atlay might pardonably have
That a fleet in being may often have through the Straits of Gibraltar, has been disconcerted by the conditions of
singular power in preventing or restraining suffered the shipwreck of its plan-as at his task, and fallen upon dullness. In fact,
the operations of an enemy is freely ad- Barfleur and La Hogue,
as at Lagos and Dr. Wilberforce lives again for those who
mitted, and Mr. Corbett quotes from a Quiberon Bay, as at Trafalgar. Still, knew him, lives now for those who knew
letter of Kempenfelt's the opinion that Mr. Corbett has shown that there are many him not. The historian of. The Victorian
such a squadron, composed of ships of conditions and some localities in which a
Chancellors' has not done better than in
the highest mobility, hanging on to the fleet may be properly and advantageously the clear and graceful prose of this
enemy's large fleet,
broken up into detachments, while still
biography.
“ « will prevent their dividing into separate in-Chief. It is a point on which we think Samuel, and born while his father was
held under the control of the Commander-
Ernest Wilberforce was the third son of
squadrons for intercepting your trade or
spreading their ships for a more extensive Capt. Mahan has dogmatized from the still Rector of Brighstone, although already
view. . . . Such a squadron will be a check special conditions forced on his notice.
and restraint upon their motions, and pre-
named by Bishop Sumner for the Arch-
vent a good deal of the mischief they might Lord Charles Beresford—too thick to be child; he made no mark at Harrow; and
Even as we write, the small volume by deaconry of Surrey. He was an unruly
otherwise do. '. . . . But [adds Mr. Corbett]
its power of preventing a particular opera- called a pamphlet—has been put into our at Oxford was remembered as a bruiser,
tion, such as oversea invasion, is another hands. A measured criticism of the with the most perfect of arms. His degree
matter which will always depend upon the conduct and policy of the Admiralty was the now obsolete“ honorary fourth. ”
local conditions. If the fleet in being might be fairly thought to have a direct Not on scholarship, but on character, his
can be contained in such a way that it is bearing on major strategy ; but this pub-
impossible for it to reach the invading, line lication seems to consist of condemnation he married at twenty-three and lost his
success was founded. Bereavement (for
of passage, it will be no bar to invasion. ”
rather than criticism, assertion rather than wife a few years later), the influence of
But of course, if "contained,” it is no argument, invective rather than reason. Dr. Woodford, later Bishop of Ely, and
longer in tactical" being. ” Even stronger Its aims, so far as we understand them, are
some years in a small Oxfordshire parish,
on this point, and possibly more practical, somewhat personal and political, and, in where he developed his specific gift of
is Capt. Mahan, who says :
either case, lie outside the field which we forcible, straight talk, conjoined to form
“The extreme school has gone so far as
try to cultivate.
him. His other great faculty of organiza-
to argue that [a Fleet in Being) will stop an
tion was developed at Seaforth, Liverpool,
expedition, or should do so if the enemy, bel
to which Gladstone (in his private capacity)
wise, I have for years contended against
presented him in 1873. He was naturally
pa
er
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No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
155
as
diffident, and probably opposition was affirming that he re-created the Church local legislation, drawn up for the guidance
of the ruling authority, soon after its power
needed to bring the best out of him. At of England in Northumberland.
was fully established. Besides this, 'The Oak
Seaforth, as Gladstone warned him, not
He paid for that privilege with over. Book' contains a large number of miscel-
poverty, but inertness and want of educa- strain, and Chichester, whither he was sent laneous documents concerning Southampton,
tion among people who were well off, were
in 1896, did not materially mend things. its disputes with neighbouring lords, churches
the difficulties. He roused the people by A man who-among many other duties and corporations, its privileges obtained
imposing a decent standard of worship, answers sixty-one letters a day, should from the Crown, and a copy of the well-
daily
services
, regular celebration of Holy economize his physical strength, and known Customs of Oléron, presented in a
Communion, and by putting new life into plainly Wilberforce overtaxed his muscular lished in The Black Book of the Admiralty.
earlier and
the Church schools.
system. Then there were the Ritual. All these documents Prof. Studer has tran-
There was endless opposition, but he ists of Brighton, Worthing, and the rest scribed and edited with elaborate care. If
faced and overthrew it. His reputation who demanded all his patience and charity. he has taken sometimes almost unnecessary
a very great parish priest began Briefly, the Bishop, while no friend to pains to set forth in type the nature of the
at Seaforth, and he went thence to win the performance of extremists, was for abbreviations of the manuscript, the labour
chester in 1878, amid general expressions of letting good men go on doing good works involved in this represents a praiseworthy
regret, drawn by Bishop Harold Browne's so long as they did not make themselves
ideal of scholarship. He has also supplied
a translation of a text which is sometimes
offer of a large missionary field in the
“impossible. ”
excessively difficult to make sense of, and
south-west. A resident canonry was to be
Mr. Atlay's absorbing chapters on if his methods of cutting the knot are
combined with the Wardenship of Wilber-
force House, and the work assigned to quench a layman's envy of episcopal coherent and intelligible version of the
Wilberforce at Chichester are of a kind
now and then rather heroic, he has at
least succeeded in making a much more
to the short-lived Wilberforce Mission to
be transferred from South London. Mr. glory, and prepare the reader for the whole than has hitherto been given of the
be transferred from South London. Mr. last scene of all at Bembridge in Septem- various parts which different scholars have
Atlay has an interesting passage on the ber, 1907. He quotes as testimony to here and there striven to turn into English,
Mission, and the reason why it fell
through. But, when Wilberforce desired of a friend who travelled with the Bishop German at Southampton, modestly disclaims
Wilberforce's personal charm the verdict Mr. Studer, who is professor of French and
to resign his canonry, the special oppor- to the Cape in April, 1904, and who tells
any special historical qualifications, and in-
tunity designed for him being no longer
forms us that he approached his task at the
open, the Bishop wisely insisted on its “how charming a companion he made him outset from a purely philological point of
retention.
self to all on board, and how completely he view. Finding, however, that the subject
The experience acquired at Aldershot, revolutionized the notions of those who had to be dealt with historically also, he was
and more notably at Portsmouth, was of associated the English Episcopate exclusively bold enough to equip himself with the know-
with lawn-sleeves and gaiters. ”
ledge that was necessary for this task.
great service to the first Bishop of New-
Occasionally an odd statement shows that
castle. The offer of that new See came More sophisticated people than the mixed he still has weak points, but in most substan-
in 1882. Wilberforce had lately returned company of a Cape liner may profitably tial matters he has done his subject full
from a successful missionary visit to revise here their notions about the episco- justice.
Quebec, made at the request of the pate. Laborious days, strain, anxiety, and Perhaps the most important part of
Canadian bishops and clergy. His name courage are among the impressions of his work is, however, the Supplement which
was already linked with the cause of episcopal palaces which one receives from is substantially the third volume, and in-
temperance, and he and his young wife-Bishop Wilberforce's biographer.
cludes, with ample glossary and indexes, a
his felicitous second marriage with Miss
highly interesting study of the French dialect
Emily Connor had taken place in 1874
in which the greater part of 'The Oak Book :
is written. Prof. Studer rightly believes
took the pledge, in the presence of his
that the composition of a work like 'The
parishioners, at the first meeting of the
LOCAL HISTORY.
Oak Book' in French is proof that in the
Church of England Temperance Society in
first half of the fourteenth century French
Seaforth. He had seen what harm drink
The Oak Book of Southampton, of c. A. D.
1300.
was a familiar vernacular to the trading
Transcribed and edited from the classes in Southampton. As this speech was
worked
among the
poor in Liverpool, and
Unique MS. in the Audit House, with Trans-
he warmed to temperançe advocacy as if lation, Introduction, Notes, &c. , by P.
the natural language of an active community,
it was a boxing match.
he thinks it worthy of serious study, and
Studer. 2 vols. With Supplement. (South-
To the North he returned, but with ampton Record Society). - The Hartley
accordingly gives a very careful and elabo-
rate account of the phonology and inflexional
genuine misgivings.
“ Badly furnished. | University
University College at Southampton
system of the French spoken in Southampton
ill-endowed, under-manned, the Church in leges of England, but its staff and students however, seem to be aware that Maitland had
one of the youngest among the newer col-
in the fourteenth century.
He does not,
Northumberland," says the biographer well take legitimate pride in the bold- already written a similar study of the French
truly, was a bare and inchoate eccle- ness which inspired them to start the South-
of the ‘Year-Books' of the same period.
siastical territory rather than a diocese. ” ampton Record Society, and the skill with Happily they largely cover different ground,
“ The best appointment of Gladstone's which they have published and edited nearly for Maitland did not concern himself with
life," as the Bishop of St. Albans told the
a dozen volumes of important local records. phonology, while Mr. Studer, who is a pro-
Duke of Argyll, "meant trouble enough They are indeed, as the preface of these fessed philologist, devotes the longest section
volumes says, an “instance of the many of his study to an examination of the sounds
for the preferred. To many Churchmen sided and stimulating influence of the Uni- and spelling of Anglo-French speech. So
he seemed a Puseyite, and Joseph Cowen's versity College in our midst. ” Prof. Hearn- little has been written with authority on
powerful influence was opposed to the shaw, the source of this inspiration, has now the grammatical peculiarities of the French
bishopric and the Bishop. Self-effacement moved far from Southampton, but he con-
used in England in the later Middle Ages that
and reticence were required of Churchmen tinues as general editor of the series, which is
a fresh contribution to our knowledge of it
by militant Dissenters, and these were enlarged by the publication for the first should receive a general welcome.
not Wilberforce's qualities as an eccle- time of the noteworthy fourteenth-century
collection called 'The Oak Book,' the printing
siastic. Mr. Atlay decorously admits that of which has long been demanded by all The 350 pages of The Story of Coventry,
the Bishop was sometimes betrayed into interested in municipal antiquities. The by Mary Dormer Harris (Dent), brightened
rashness of speech. ” It answered its very miscellaneous contents of The Oak by Mr. Chandler's illustrations, form &
purpose, for he championed the claims Book' are duly explained by the editor, pleasantly written and attractive guide to
of the Church sucoessfully in many a
Prof. Studer.
the history and topography of the ancient
controversy.
The newspapers at first The special peculiarity of Southampton city. The last chapter, entitled 'Old Coven-
abused him, but the men of the North among English" municipalities is due to try at the Present Day, will be helpful to
liked and respected his methods, and the fact that the merchant guild absorbed visitors whose time is limited.
The sections that deal with the beginnings
he ended thirteen years at Newcastle in itself the inchoate municipal organiz-
with Cowen and Dr. Spence Watson as
ation, and became the governing body of municipal government, the corporation
of the town. The greater part of “The and the guilds, and especially with the
his allies in all good work. A cloud Oak Book' consists of the guild ordinances, mayor, bailiffs, and community, show that
of witnesses, clerical and lay, unite in embodying many fragments of much earlier the author has closely studied the intricacies
is
may
irst
6
CUTII


## p. 156 (#132) ############################################

156
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4398, FEB. 10, 1912
-
was
а
PE
of mediæval town life and administration ; and the subject seems to have been a Henry landed with his forces in the South-
and in no other English town is there such lad of almost supernatural piety, and West of England in 1153, when the earls of
a wealth of available information. The learning. Burman's visit to Cambridge that district rose in his cause ; the evidence
whole question of local government was is the merest fragment; but it is most of the coinage closely corroborates that of
unusually complicated at Coventry by the interesting, and his allusion to University the chronicles and charters. Henry's own
rule of two rival forces, and this made the ceremonies of creating. Doctors by giving money was minted at Wareham, Sherborne,
struggle for municipal freedom all the them a cap, book, and ring is illustrated Malmesbury, and possibly Taunton, as well
harder. Coventry was divided into two by Prof. Mayor by extracts from Bentley as at Wiveliscombe ; · whilst other mints
lordships : one part was the property of which well repay perusal. At a feast of the West, including Dunster, struck
the Earls of Chester, and was termed the at Trinity they dined off square wooden the coinage of the several earls who sup-
Earl's-half ; whilst the other part pertained platters. Von Uffenbach visited all the ported him in his action against Stephen.
to the great Benedictine foundation, and libraries, and grumbled at everything-
was known as the Prior's-half. The diffi- somewhat unreasonably it would appear.
culties of tenure, custom, and privilege But the chief interest lies in Mayor's notes,
A History of the Manor and Township of
within the walls were considerable, and which reveal his erudition and remarkable Allerton in the County of Lancaster. By
frequently led to disputes between the powers of illustration. The Professor was
Ronald Stewart - Brown. (Liverpool, E.
Earl's men and the Prior's tenants.
an omnivorous man of learning a true
Howell. )-For centuries Allerton
To those who have made a study of successor of the giants of the seventeenth purely agricultural township, and during
the last hundred years it has been the home
Coventry, or have known it at first hand for century–who spent his life amid books,
of Liverpool's most
and whose diversions were more arduous
eminent citizens ;
some years, there are certain disappoint-
Such
than the labours of many scholars.
ments in this book, notwithstanding the
now its glory is rapidly fading before the
amount of trustworthy information gathered men as these have, however, seldom given onslaught of villadom and electric tramways.
within its covers.
The absorption of Allerton into the ever-
The town walls, for
the result of their toils in ordered form to
instance, were well worth more than the
the world.
spreading City of Liverpool is only a question
of a few years, so it is especially fitting that
brief allusions made to them, for in this
a chronicler should arise before its indi-
respect Coventry was of primary importance. Wifela's Combe: a History of the Parish viduality is finally lost.
The walls, as constructed in the middle of
of Wiveliscombe. By F. Hancock. (Taunton,
the fourteenth century, enclosed an area
Mr. Stewart-Brown deals in an interesting
Barnicott & Pearce. )—Prebendary Hancock
that was without a rival in the Midlands. is well known in the West of England as the ficing accuracy, to picturesqueness, and he
way with the manorial history without sacri-
Their circuit was about three miles; they writer of two good books dealing with the knows where to turn for his facts and how
were nine feet thick, of considerable height, histories of the adjacent towns of Minehead
provided with thirty-two towers, and pierced and Dunster.
to use those facts when they have been
He has now produced a found The story of the manor during the
by twelve gates. Again, the information as
volume on the history of the small Somer- last 150 years reads more like a romance
to the two friaries and the four hospitals
setshire town and parish of Wiveliscombe.
of the town is too scanty.
than sober history, and the great “ Hardman
The name is odd, and more than one
case” inevitably suggests Jarndyce v.
attempt has been made to supply its deriva- Jarndyce. Mr. Stewart-Brown gives also
The Royal Charters of the City of Lincoln : tion. Collinson, the county historian, men-
a very readable account of many of the
Henry II. to William III. , transcribed and tions two explanations which were current present-day landowners, though his frank-
translated, with an Introduction, by Walter
in his day, but both of them are obviously
ness will perhaps be more entertaining to
de Gray Birch (Cambridge University Press),
impossible. The one derived the name from those readers who are not directly con-
is a well-printed, handsome, and useful the prevalence there in early times of the cerned; it is a question how far some of
book, and the more to be welcomed as it grub called the weevil, whilst the other sup- the well-known families in the neighbour-
seems to be one result of recent efforts on posed that it had its origin in the presence hood of Liverpool will appreciate being told
the part of the Corporation of Lincoln to of weasels in the district. Mr. Hancock's that their ancestor of a little more than a
set in order their fine collection of records theory, however, is most probably correct, hundred years ago was an illiterate old man
and make them accessible to scholars. To namely, that it means the Combe which was
in poor circumstances, who could not sign
have had the series printed, arranged, and the possession of one Wifela, or Wyvel. his own name.
translated is a great thing. It is a pity,
The local pronunciation has long ago been
To the general reader the most attractive
however, that the editing shows some lack
simplified as Wilscombe.
section will be that dealing with the group
of order and method, and is not always The story of the parish goes back to early of prehistoric stones known as the Calder-
critical enough. The Introduction and Glos- days, for prehistoric folk established a great stones, a subject handled in a careful and
sary leave something to be desired, and the earthwork at Castle, a fortress which was discriminating way. The gillustrations are
transctiption of the texts has in different held in succession by Romans, Saxons, and well chosen, and, with the exception of two
parts of the book been carried out on some- Danes. Edward the Confessor bestowed early plans, well reproduced ; and the Index
what varying principles. There is a fair the manor on the bishopric of Wells, and is good.
translation, but a little more explanation here for centuries bishops occasionally
of difficulties would have been an improve- resided. The prebendaries of Wells also
London North of the Thames (A. & C.
ment. The facsimiles are attractive, though held a large estate about the town, exer-
some are on too small a scale for ordinary cising manorial rights and using an official volume, as the previous one describing the
Black) should have been styled the second
eyes.
seal; but the ecclesiastical affairs of the City is equally “ London North of the
parish were left almost entirely, to the Thames. " It is stated on the title-page to
Cambridge under Queen Anne, illustrated
care of the vicars. The story of the fabric be by Sir Walter Besant, but in the Preface
by Memoir of Ambrose Bonwicke and Diaries
of the church is sad ; it is now a tasteless
we are informed that he edited it and
of Francis Burman and Zacharias Conrad
building, erected in 1829, with a debased "wrote a good deal of it,” the remainder
von Uffenbach, and edited with notes by
semi-Italian interior.
being by Miss G. E. Mitton.