General Books

KENNINGTON COMMON. Before all traces be lost of Kennington Common, so soon to be distinguished by the euphonious epithet of Park, let me put a Query to some of your antiquarian readers in relation thereunto; and suffer me to make the Query a peg, whereon to hang sundry and divers little notes. And pray let no one ridicule the idea that Kennington has its antiquities; albeit that wherever you look, new... more...

ANCIENT AMERICAN LANGUAGES. (Continued from Vol. vi., pp. 60, 61.) Since communicating to you a short list of a few books I had noted as having reference to this obscure subject, I have stumbled over a few others which bear special reference to the Quichua: and of which I beg to send you a short account, which may be worthy a place in your valuable pages. The first work upon the Quichua language, of... more...

EARLY STATISTICS.—CHART, KENT. Perhaps some one of your numerous readers will be good enough to inform me whether any general statistical returns, compiled from our early parish registers, have ever been published. An examination of the register of Chart next Sutton Valence, in Kent, which disclosed some very curious facts, has led me to make this inquiry. They seem to point to the inevitable... more...

Minor Notes. Italian-English (Vol. viii., p. 436.).—The following wholesale assassination of the English language was perpetrated in the form of a circular, and distributed among the British residents at Naples in 1832: "Joseph the Cook, he offer to one illuminated public and most particular for British knowing men in general one remarkable, pretty, famous, and splendid collection of old goods,... more...

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. In two former communications on a subject incidental to that to which I now beg leave to call your attention, I hinted at a result far more important than the discovery of the author of the Taming of a Shrew. That result I lay before your readers, in stating that I think I can show grounds for the assertion that the Taming of the Shrew, by Shakspeare, is the original play; and... more...

PERIPLUS OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN. I am not sufficiently Quixotic to attempt a defence of the Carthaginians on the western coast of Africa, or any where else, but I submit that the accusation brought against them by Mr. S. Bannister, formerly Attorney-General of New South Wales, is not sustained by the only record we possess of Hanno's colonising expedition. That gentleman, in his learned Records... more...

ARABIAN TALES AND THEIR SOURCES. The Arabians have been the immediate instruments in transmitting to us those Oriental tales, of which the conception is so brilliant, and the character so rich and varied, and which, after having been the delight of our childhood, never lose entirely the spell of their enchantment over our maturer age. But while many of these tales are doubtless of Arabian origin, it is... more...

THE TOPOGRAPHER & GENEALOGIST, EDITED BY JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, F.S.A. The XIIIth Part of this Work is now published, price 3s. 6d., containing: Some Account of the Manor of Apuldrefield, in the Parish of Cudham, Kent, by G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., F.S.A. Petition to Parliament from the Borough of Wotton Basset, in the reign of Charles I., relative to the right of the Burgesses to Free Common of... more...

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...

AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF VENTILATION. "The House [of Commons] met to-day [27th April] after the Easter holidays—and honourable members, on entering, seemed highly to appreciate the unusual luxury of a little fresh air."—The Times, 28th April. The failure of some late attempts to ventilate public buildings invites me to set forth an Encyclopædia of ventilation—at a cheap rate, and in a... more...