2"'' S. V. 124., May 15. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



407 



alternately, and with great merriment, intercepted 

 the public roads with ropes, and pulled passengers 

 to them, from whom they extracted money, to be 

 laid out in pious purposes. Blount, in his Law 

 Dictionary., says, that in the accounts of Magdalen 

 College, Oxford, there is yearly an allowance "pro 

 niulieribus hocantibus " of some manors of theirs 

 in Hampshire, where the men "hoc" the women 

 on Monday, and conti-a on Tuesday. Bellaisa. 



Beacons (2'"'S. v. 55.) — Additional illustration : 



" He came upon the Jamnites also by night, and set the 

 haven on fire with the ships, so that the light of the fire 

 was seen at Jerusalem, two hundred and forty furlongs 

 off." — 2 Maccabees, chap. xii. v. 9. (Douai version). 



W. B. M. 



MONTHLY FEUII.LETO]* ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



It certainl3' does not seem as if the commercial cri.sis 

 which so many persons still cornplain of had affected 

 either the production or the sale of books. Amateurs 

 find, even in these evil daj's, money enough to purchase 

 a Verard or an Elzevir ; naj', they will give fifty pounds 

 for a copy of one of M. Scribe's plays, because it contains 

 on the margin three notes in Mademoiselle Kachel's hand- 

 writing ! The dispersion of that celebrated lady's library 

 must henceforward be numbered amongst the curiosities 

 of bibliomania, and the few items which I quote from the 

 printed list will serve as specimens of the extravagant 

 sums given for comparative trifles : — 



Racine's Phedre - - 1200 fr. - 48/. 



„ Athalie - - 220 fr. - 8/. 16s. 8d. 

 „ Andromaque 125 fr. - 5/. 

 Corneille's Le Cid - 575 fr. - 23Z. 



„ Fohjceute - 110 fr. - 4Z. 8s. id. , 



The above copies were those which Mademoiselle Ka- 

 chel used for her studies, and most of them have MS. 

 annotations by their late owner. 



Our friend M. Auguste Aubry*, who superintended the 

 sale of the collection just now alluded to, has lately added 

 to the list of his own publications several curious and 

 useful works. I shall enumerate them in succession. 



" Recit des Funerailles d'Anne de Bretagne, precede 

 d'une Coniplainte sur la Movt de cette Princesse et de sa 

 Gcncalogie. Le tout compose par Bretaigne, son Heraut 

 d'Armes. Public pour la premiere fois avec une intro- 

 duction et des notes par L. Merlet et Max. de Gombert. 

 Un vol. avec blasons graves." 



This elegant volume contains on Anne of Britanny a 

 series of pieces both in prose and in poetry, which form 

 the necessary appendix to all the biograpliies we possess 

 of that princess. The introduction prefixed by the two 

 editors is an excellent restima of her life. »The Duchess 

 Anne, as most people know, was on the point of being 

 married to the Prince of Wales, son of lulward IV., and 

 therefore the Recit des Funerailles, if it were only from 

 this circumstance, would commend itself to the notice of 

 English readers. The MSS. used by Mess. Merlet and 

 De Gombert maj' be found in the Bihliothcipie Tmperiale, 

 and the State-Paper OfHce at Paris. 



"Le Livre de la Chasse du Grand Seneschal de Nor- 

 niandie et les Dits du bon Chien Soulliard, qui fut au Roy 



* " Auguste Aubry, I'un des Libraires de la Socie'te 

 des Bibliophiles l'"ian(;oi3. IG. Rue Dauphine, Paris." 



Louis de France XI® de ce nom. Public par M. le Baron J. 

 Pichon, President de la Societe des Bibliophiles Francois." 

 Fastidious critics maj' be inclined to exclaim cui bono? 

 whilst reading the above title. But, in the first place, the 

 piece named Im Chasse du Seneschal de Normandie is a 

 bibliographical rarity ; and had it not been for the kind- 

 ness of Baron Pichon, the unique copy known of it must 

 have ever remained a sealed document to the majority of 

 amateurs. In the second place, as there exists a pisca- 

 torial and a venatorial literature (I hope these epithets 

 are correct), I do not know how the latter can better be 

 enriched than with a monument showing the manner in 

 which our ancestors understood field-sports. Baron Pi- 

 chon's book will take its place by the side of Dame 

 Juliana Berners' treatise and the Complete Angler of that 

 honest old gentleman Izaak Walton. 



"Ce qu'on apprenait aux Foires de Troyes et de la 

 Champagne au XI II" Siecle, suivi d'une Notice historique 

 sur les Foires de la Champagne et de la Brie, par I'Auteur 

 des Archives curieuses de la Cliampagne." 



This singular little pamphlet is the first instalment of 

 a new serial designed to reproduce various literary and 

 historical inorceau.v relating to the province of Cham- 

 pagne. The Bowse pleine dc Sens here printed from a 

 MS. in the Bibliotheque Imperiale, is a fabliau composed 

 during the thirteenth century by a poet named Jehan li 

 Galois. The object of the author in relating his tale is to 

 prove that 



" Fos est li horn qui croit musarde, 

 Qu'ar n'i a amor ou fiance." 



Notwithstanding this couplet of questionable moralitj', 

 we heartily recommend to our readers a speedy acquaint- 

 ance with Jehan li Galois. M. Alexandre Assier's notes 

 are valuable, and his disquisition on the fairs of Cham- 

 pagne and Brie supplies many details of real interest : a 

 number of fac-similes from old woodcuts farther en- 

 hances the merit of the publication. 



" Essai sur I'Art de restaurer les Estampes et les 

 Livres, ou Traits sur les meilleurs Precedes pour blanchir, 

 detacher, decolorier, reparer et conserver les Estampes, 

 Livres et Dessins, par A. Bonnardot, seconde Edition, re- 

 fondue et augmentee, suivie d'un Expose des divers'^j'S- 

 tfemes de Reproduction des anciennes Estampes et des 

 Livres rares." 



The different notes which this journal inserts from time 

 to time on the best methods for preserving or restoring 

 prints, books, and MSS., has induced me to believe that 

 M. Bonnardot's volume would be a welcome friend in 

 many a library. The first edition appeared twelve years 

 ago, and the present one, almost entirely recast, embodies 

 all the information brought to light by recent discoveries. 

 The chapters on the various ways of reproducing old 

 prints is particularly interesting. 



" Petit Vocabulaire Latin-Francjais du XIII« Si(icle, 

 Extrait d'un Manuscrit de la Bibliotheque d'Evreux, 

 par L.-Alph. Chassant, Paleographe, et ancien Correspon- 

 dant du Ministere de I'lnstruction publique pour les Tra- 

 vaux Historiques." 



The manuscript from which the above is derived be- 

 longs to the public library of Evreux, in Normandy (K^. 

 23. square 4".) Although containing nothing but a short 

 vocabulary, Latin and French, I esteem it as one of the 

 most important publications brought out by M. Aubry ; 

 it gives us a clue to the history of the French language 

 during the thirteenth century, and, as M. Chassant truly 

 remarks, " la philologie trouvera encore h glaner dans ce 

 petit livre." 



" Notice sur Pierre de Brach, Po^te Bordelais du XVI" 

 Siocle, par Reinhold Dezeimcrls, ouvrage couronne par 



