Periodicals Books

Minor Notes. Tippet.—The origin of words signifying articles of dress would be a curious subject for investigation. Tippet is derived by Barclay from the Saxon tæppet; but I find the following passage in Captain Erskine's Journal of his recent Cruise in the Western Pacific, p. 36. He is writing of the dress of the women at the village of Feleasan, in the Samoan Islands: "And occasionally a... more...

February 18, 1914. "I come," said Mr. Lloyd George last week, "from a farming stock right down from the Flood. The first thing a farmer wants is to be secure." It was of course during the Flood that the insecurity of land tenure was most noticeable. Lord Carrick, who a few months ago was appearing in a sketch at the Coliseum, seconded the Address in the House of Lords. We are glad to... more...

November 11, 1914. "In Buenos Aires and other parts of Argentina," The Express tells us, "people are tired of the war, and a brisk trade is being done in the sale of buttons to be worn by the purchaser, inscribed with the words 'No me habla de la guerra' ('Don't talk to me about the war')." The Kaiser, we understand, has now sent for one of these buttons. The... more...

PARTY-SIMILES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—NO. I. "FOXES AND FIREBRANDS." NO. II. "THE TROJAN HORSE." With Englishmen, at least, the seventeenth was a century pre-eminent for quaint conceits and fantastic similes: the literature of that period, whether devotional, poetical, or polemical, was alike infected with the universal mania for strained metaphors, and men vied with each other in... more...

LYDFORD BRIDGE.Lydford Bridge. LYDFORD BRIDGE. This is an interesting scene from the wild and wonderful in Nature. Its romantic luxuriance must win the attention of the artist, and the admiration of the less wistful beholder; while the philosophic mind, unaccustomed to vulgar wonder, may seek in its formation the cause of some of the most important changes of the earth's surface. Our esteemed... more...

PUERTA DEL SOL, MADRID. Puerta del Sol, or Gate of the Sun, Madrid, is the most famous and favorite public square in the Spanish city of Madrid. It was the eastern portal of the old city. From this square radiate several of the finest streets, such as Alcala, one of the handsomest thoroughfares in the world, Mayor, Martera, Carretas, Geronimo. In our engraving the post office is seen on the right.... more...

MOLECULAR WEIGHTS. A new and most valuable method of determining the molecular weights of non-volatile as well as volatile substances has just been brought into prominence by Prof. Victor Meyer (Berichte, 1888, No. 3). The method itself was discovered by M. Raoult, and finally perfected by him in 1886, but up to the present has been but little utilized by chemists. It will be remembered that Prof.... more...

WILLIAM BLAKE. My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted with many neglected and obscure individuals connected with our earlier English literature, who, after "fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have passed away; leaving their names entombed upon the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty book, only to be found upon the shelves of the curious. To look for these in Kippis,... more...

February 23, 1916. The threatened shortage of paper has led a few unkind persons to enquire upon what our diplomatic victories are hereafter to be achieved. An interned German was recently given a week's freedom in which to get married, and the interesting question has now been raised as to whether his children, when they reach the age of twenty-one, will be liable to the Conscription Act or will... more...

Notes. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI. Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical... more...