2«'» S. VII. Jan. 8. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



39 



Stocks and Chambers of Little Ease (2°'* S. vi. 

 345.) — There is at Walton-on-the-Hill, about 

 three miles from the Liverpool Exchange, on the 

 Preston road, an iron stocks. It is close to the 

 churchyard wall, and within the last two years a 

 person was confined there by order of the local 

 magistrates of the district ; I do not remember for 

 what offence. 



On Everton Brow, Liverpool, near the Original 

 TofFy Shop, is a small sugar-loaf- formed building 

 that was used as a place of confinement for of- 

 fenders, and is exactly formed as the prisons of 

 " little ease " mentioned by Mr. David Gam. At 

 the Old Swan, about three miles from Liverpool, 

 on the St. Helen's road, is another ; and at Hale, 

 about ten miles from Liverpool, near the Lanca- 

 shire shore, there is a third. None of these, how- 

 ever, have been used in the recollection of anyone 

 living. S. R. 



liiverpool. 



Materials of Foxe's ^' Booh of Martyrs'' (2""* S. 

 vi. 478.) — Much information on this subject will 

 be found in the Edinburgh Review, No. CLXXIL 

 art. 6. Henry Huth. 



Miscellaneous!. 



MONTHLY rEUUiLETON ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



" Froissart. E'tude Litteraire sur le XIV""® Sifecle, par 

 M. Kervyn de Lettenhove. 2 vols, 12". Paris, A. Du- 

 rand." 



There are few writers within the whole sphere of lite- 

 rature whose name is so widely and so justly popular as 

 the old chronicler Froissart. He is not the man of one 

 country; he does not wed himself to any particular 

 nationality ; nor could you find in his writings those 

 sympathies and antipathies which are so characteristic of 

 Monstrelet, Olivier de la Marche, or Philippe de Corn- 

 mines. Froissart, indeed, has been blamed more than 

 once for his want of patriotism. Chivalrj-, jousts, and 

 tournaments, such are the only objects of his affection. 

 Wherever deeds of valour are to be performed, you are 

 sure to find him, and whether the dramatis persona are 

 French or English, Tros Rutulusve fuat, it is for him 

 Of very little moment, provided the contest be hardly 

 fought, and in the presence of an admiring bevy of fair 

 damosels. Thus Froissart, politically speaking, is a per- 

 fect sceptic ; but he is the chronicler of the Middle Ages 

 par excellence, and the wide range of his observation, 

 quite as much as his sense of the picturesque, and the 

 life he throws over his descriptions, has contributed to 

 secure for him very great reputation. " Froissart est un 

 ami franc, sincere, naif, qui s'accointe avec vous, aussi 

 courtoisement, aussi amiablement qu'avec les hommes de 

 son temps. Vousl'aviez appelek.vous pour vous instruire; 

 il vous charme, il vous rejouit, il vous amuse. Vous voulez 

 en faire le compagnon de vos etudes ; il devient celui de 

 vos loisirs, et une fois que I'on aborde avec lui le tableau 

 des aventures et des emprises d'armes qui se succfedent 

 toujours les unes aux autres, on y prend un plaisir aussi 

 vif que si ce livre n'etait pas un recueil de fails histo- 

 riques, mais un roman de chevalerie." 



The above quotation is from M. Kervyn de Lettenhove's 

 preface, and it will prove at once that Froissart has met 

 in his new biographer with a congenial spirit, a man 



fully capable of doing credit to the very important task 

 which he had undertaken. The E'tude Litteraire, in its 

 original form, obtained one of the annual prizes offered by 

 the Acad^mie Fran^oise. Thus encouraged, the author 

 again took up his MS., recast and remodelled it, corrected 

 a few errors, added an excellent section on Froissart's lite- 

 rary influence, and produced thus a couple of volumes 

 which must certainly find their way in the libraries of all 

 those who are interested in mediasval lore. 



We can fancy the delight with which M. de Lettenhove 

 set ofl', one cold November morning, on a pilgrimage to 

 the various localities connected with the early life of his 

 favourite historian. But, alas! time, revolutions, and 

 other causes, have destroyed almost every vestige of the 

 parsonage -house where Froissart poring over his work 

 recorded the souvenirs of days gone bj'. A small door, 

 now permanently shut, a well, the ruins of an old stair- 

 case, — such are the sole remains that can be traced back • 

 to the fourteenth century ; the house itself is now divided 

 into two tenements ; the garden is as altered as the house. 

 Finally, we had best seek Froissart, not amidst the crum- 

 bling ruins and the crabbed old apple-trees of Lestines, 

 but in the living pages of his memoirs, and in the capital 

 biography of M. Kervyn de Lettenhove. 



The work divides itself naturally into three distinct 

 parts. The first gives us the narrative of the chronicler's 

 life, derived from the most authentic sources. Our readers 

 are aware that Froissart's poems contain a great number 

 of details which illustrate his early career. The Espinette 

 Amoureuse more especially is full of particulars related 

 with much feeling, and the pleasantness of childish recol- 

 lections gives additional charm to the poetry. 



Without following Froissart throughout all the inci- 

 dents of his busy pilgrimage, we shall merely confine our 

 attention to two or three debateable points connected 

 with the composition of his Chronicle. In the first place 

 it is quite evident that he began his work at Lestines, in 

 1373, by the advice and with the encouragement of Gui 

 de Blois. The poem entitled Le Buisson de Jonece leaves 

 no doubt on the subject ; and Froissart himself again and 

 again repeats in his Chronicle, " Le Conte Guy de Blois 

 me fit faire la noble histoire ; . . . . le bon et souverain 

 seigneur .... k la requeste, contemplation et plaisance 

 duquel il travailla h cette haulte et noble histoire." The 

 difficulty is to ascertain what order Froissart followed in 

 the actual jotting down of his souvenirs, the chronology 

 of the various parts which compose it, and the sources 

 from which he derived the information he turned to such 

 account. Here we are reduced to mere conjecture, and 

 M. de Lettenhove does not profess to give us any positive 

 facts. Most probably the portion first committed to writ- 

 ing was the concise sketch of the events which took place 

 between the battles of Poitiers and of Cocherel ; after- 

 wards " un jour serait venu ou Guy de Blois, I'exhortant 

 h faire remonter ses recits h I'origine meme de la guerre 

 de la France et de I'Angleterre, c'est k dire bien avant 

 I'epoque ou avaient commence ses enquetes, lui aurait 

 montre le pr&ieux manuscrit de la chronique de Jean le 

 Bel, conserve, comme nous I'avons d^jk dit, au chateau de 

 Beaumont." For the history of the origin of the war 

 Froissart makes a constant use of that chronicle; but one 

 can see that he likewise takes for his guide his literary 

 patron, and that the Earl of Blois furnishes him with 

 comments on the facts, often dismissed with a bare men- 

 tion by .Jean le Bel. When our annalist arrived at the 

 portion of his storj' where he relates the death of Philip- 

 pina of Hainault, Guy de Blois was married, and Robert 

 of Namur, the uncle of the bride, supplied in his turn 

 Froissart with anecdotes and incidents for his Chronicle. 

 Two MSS. reproducing this early state of the text are 

 still extant: the one is preserved at Valenciennes, the 

 other at Amiens ; but they belonged originally to the li- 



