BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES.-MAY.

MR. FRANCIS EDWARDS'S Catalogue No. 314 has, first of all, a Juliana Berners, The Book of St. Albans: the second edition, in a good state, with but a few leaves slightly soiled, and folios 66 and last in facsimile. The second edition-as collectors know-differs from the first by the addition of two woodcuts and of the Treatise of Fysshynge with an Angle,' and the substitution of the arms of England for those of St. Albans on the last leaf. It is perhaps hardly necessary to mention that this was emprynted at Westmestre by Wynkyn the Worde the yere of thycarnacon of our lorde, M.CCCC.LXXXXVI.," 330. There are

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three Shakespeares: a Second Folio, 1501., a Third Folio, 1807., and a Fourth Folio, 100%.; and a Faerie Queene'-the first issue of the first edition, as is proved by the fact that the Welsh words in vol. i. are not printed-1507. We noticed several good Milton items; a copy of Harvey's Anatomical Exercitations,' first English edition, with the portrait, 1653, 9.; a copy of the sixth edition of Stow's London,' "Corrected and Improved by John Strype," 1754-5, 8. 15s.; the First and Second Folios of the Workes of Ben Jonson, 507.; a first edition of Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,' containing two autograph letters, one from Johnson to the Quaker Thomas Cumming, and the other from James Macpherson to John Blackburn, 267.; and a first edition of Mrs. Glasse, the famous "Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy; which far exceeds anything of the kind ever yet Published, by A Lady," 1747, 147. About a dozen herbals are offered Gerard's and Parkinson's among them; the two most interesting are Leonardus Fuchsius, De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes, maximis impensis et Vigiliis elaborati......,' with 500 woodcuts of plants, 1542, 40%., and the 'Herbarius zu Teutsch'-known in Latin as Hortus Sanitatis-in Gothic letter, the text rubricated, and having several hundred woodcuts, printed by Jo. Schoeffer, 1485, 45. Out of a number of very attractive early printed books we can mention only a first edition of Pinder's Speculum Passionis' in Roman letter, rubricated, having painted capitals, 40 full-page woodcuts, and 37 smaller woodcuts, printed by Hans Schaufelein of Nuremberg, 1507, 247.; and a copy of the 'Chronicle of St. Albans'a first edition of the second book printed at St. Albans. No perfect copy is known; in this, out of 288 leaves, 15 are wanting, but have been supplied in facsimile. It was sold at the Ashburnham sale, and is now offered for 2001. There are seven copies of early editions of the Bible, including a "Great" Bible, 54., and a "Bishops" Bible, 357.; and a number of rare MSS. Of these latter we must briefly mention a French fifteenthcentury breviary, in Gothic letter, richly illuminated and decorated (executed for Henri de Lorraine), 350. another breviary of the early sixteenth century, written also in Gothic letter, decorated in green, blue, and red, and bearing the name of the scribe ("Completum per me Jo. de lacu...... anno 1516"), 1307.; and an English MS.-offered for 2007. -of St. Bonaventura: "The Proheme of the Booke that is cleped the Mirour of the Blessede Lyf of Jhesu Cryst,' written on vellum in Gothic letter in 1410. Yet another MS. is of special interest: a fifteenth-century Le Liure appelle les Regnars trauersans les perilleuses voyes des folles fiances du

monde,' i.e., Reynard the Fox, by Jean Bouchet, written on vellum, and adorned with 9 miniatures depicting scenes with figures of animals, 350.

Mr. Francis Edwards has also sent us a catalogue of Books on Central and South Africa. These include several seventeenth-century works, such as the Africa Descriptio,' by Leo Africanus, Elzevir, 1632. 6/. 10s., and Richard Jobson's 'The Golden Trade, or a Discovery of the River Gambia, and the Golden Trade of the Aethiopians,' 1623, 87. 10. 1811, 12.; Sir Andrew Smith's Illustrations of the a copy of Alberti's Vues d'Afrique méridionale," Zoology of South Africa,' 5 vols., 1849, 327.; and The South African Commercial Advertiser, 1837-49, in 12 vols., 15. There is an appendix of books on Egypt, among which is Lepsius's Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien,' from the Prussian expedition of 1842-5, 607.*

[Notices of other Catalogues held over.]

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices :—

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately, of old books and other objects or as to the means of nor can we advise correspondents as to the value disposing of them.

CORRESPONDENTS who send letters to be forwarded to other contributors should put on the top left-hand corner of their envelopes the number of the page of N. & Q.' to which their letters refer, so that the contributor may be readily identified. Otherwise much time has to be spent in tracing the querist.

spondents must observe the following rules. Let To secure insertion of communications correeach note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous such address as he wishes to appear. When answerentries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication Duplicate.'

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ATHOR. The Marquis de Ruvigny gives the available information in the volumes of his Plantagenet Roll.'

These are little

A. J. PEATLING ("Pimps ").. faggots of firewood, so called in London and the South. Vide N.E.D.'

RUNIC CALENDAR.-If MR. CHAPPELL Would like to see an old runic stave fixed as haft to an adze, date cut into the iron, 1642, G. E. would be glad to show it to him.

F. J. M. ("Old Lady of Threadneedle Street "). -See 5 S. ii. 229, 291, where the name is said to have been given to the Directors of the Bank by Cobbett, because, like Mrs. Partington, they tried to stem the waves of national progress with their broom. It has also been ascribed to a caricature of Gillray's, 22 May, 1797, referring to the stoppage of cash payments by the Bank.

dinner.

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On New Year's Eve he went to Forster's and read a number of Edwin Drood.' He made light of his pains, which had returned both in the left hand and left foot, and he read "with such an overflow of humour Mr. Honeythunder's boisterous philanthropy that there was no room, then, for anything but enjoyment." His only allusion to any effect produced by his illness was a mention of his increasing dislike to railway travel. This had decided him to take a London house for the twelve last readings; and finding that he could have the residence of his friend Milner Gibson, 5, Hyde Park Place, he became his tenant. This handsome house occupies a splendid position, looking out towards the Marble Arch. With its large, lofty rooms, it was just the house for a Cabinet Minister, and in its dining-room, during the agitation for the repeal of the paper duties, Gibson frequently received deputations.

a

The Farewell Readings at St. James's Hall began on Tuesday, the 11th of January, 1870. On the 23rd Dickens met Carlyle for the last time. On the 7th of February his last birthday was passed with Forster. On the 15th of March the final reading took place. This was one of the hardest struggles he had to face, but he went through with it with his usual undaunted courage, and it was indeed crowning triumph. The great hall was packed; there were over two thousand persons present, and the receipts amounted to 4251.; while the numbers turned away far exceeded those that were able to be admitted. With much agitation Dickens walked on to the platform, book in hand. After reading the Carol,' which he never gave more effectively, he closed with the trial from Pickwick." Then came the most dreaded part of all, in which, in a few words, he bade his audience "a heartfelt, grateful, respectful, and affectionate farewell," and told them that he closed this episode of his life with feelings of very considerable pain." As he left the platform, Dolby tells us, the tears rolled down his cheeks." "But he had to go forward yet once again, to be stunned by a more surprising outburst than

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Dolby estimates the entire amount Dickens made by his readings at 45,000l. It is sad to remember that, although the pleasure he derived from them "is not to be told in words," yet without doubt they materially shortened his life. Forster, from notes taken by Dr. Beard, gives the following record as to Dickens's pulse immediately after these last twelve readings:

"His ordinary pulse on the first night was 72, but never on any subsequent night was lower than 82, and had risen on the later nights to more than 100. After Copperfield' on the first night it went up to 96, and after Marigold' on the second to 99; but on the first night of the Sikes and Nancy' scenes it went from 80 to 112, and on the second night (the 1st of February) to nights, it never was lower than 110 after the 118. From this, through the six remaining first piece read; and after the reading of the Oliver Twist' scenes it rose from 90 to 124 on the 15th of February."

30th

On the 5th of April Dickens took the chair for the Newsvendors, when I had the pleasure of having my father and brother with me. He was full of merriment, and overflowing with humour. On the of the same month, at the Royal Academy dinner, he returned thanks for "Literature.' Only three days previously he had had the shock of reading at a railway station the announcement of the death of his old friend Daniel Maclise, and the last public words uttered by Dickens were this tribute to his friend :

ever went to his rest leaving a golden memory "In 'wit a man, simplicity a child'-no artist more pure from dross, or having devoted himself with a truer chivalry to the art-goddess whom he worshipped.' JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS. (To be continued.)

A RUNIC CALENDAR.

VICTORIA and Albert Museum, Room 132. (See ante, pp. 261, 285, 321, 363, 384, 403.) THE days under the signs of the Zodiac show very clearly that the original was made before the introduction of the New Style, or It will be convenient Gregorian, calendar. to tabulate the possible dates on which the sun could have entered the various signs, according to the information given, as well as the dates on which the sun enters them according to the New Style. For the purposes of such a rough comparison as is

n

Owing to the over-correction caused by making every fourth year a leap year, under the Old Style calendar the sun entered the signs before the correct date, so that all the values in the column headed 'Possible Dates' that are greater than the corresponding Present Date' may be discarded. This eliminates all but the first three vertical columns of Possible Dates.' Subtract these three columns from from the corresponding Present Date,' and the anticipations will be 18, 11, and 4 days respectively. In the twentieth century the Old Style calendar is only 13 days in error; so that the first column, which gives an anticipation of 18 days, may also be rejected. The choice is

now between the centuries in which the error

of the calendar was 11 and 4. The error was 11 days during the period 1700-99, and 4 days during the period 700-899. The latter period is obviously out of the question, so that the probable date, from this information, is 1700-99. If the date of the introduction of the New Style be considered, this period can be materially shortened. The change was made in Norway and Denmark in 1700, and in Sweden in 1753. It is very unlikely, therefore, that the calendar is later than 1753; and the possible range is now 1700-53. The fact that the original was prior to 1753 is confirmed to some extent by the use of a solar cycle of twenty-eight years.

The numerical values of the Golden Number and the epact enable the date to

4, 11, 18, 25

22

be calculated somewhat roughly. This is due to the fact that the errors of the Metonic cycle necessitate an occasional revision of the epacts after one, two, or three centuries. On consulting a table of epacts it will be found that the epacts calculated corresponded to the Golden Numbers assumed from 1500 to 1799, if the Old Style were retained during this period.

The evidence afforded by the saints who are commemorated on the calendar is not of much value. The latest one is St. Birgitta, who was canonized in 1391. The calendar must therefore be subsequent to this date.

It will be observed that none of these sources of information contradicts any of the others. Taking them all into consideration, it is very probable that the original calendar

was made between 1700 and 1753.

Before giving the full arrangement of the calendar, attention may be drawn to the In the errors which are to be found on it. first place, errors arise from the confusion of similar runes. The following groups conare frequently inter

tain runes which changed :

: