686 Monthly Review of Literature. [Dec. 



Among the tolls of Bow-Bridge is the charge of eightpence for any cart carry- 

 a dead Jew. 



At Dedham and Finchingfield lived, or died, Matthew Newcomen and Stephen 

 Marshall, two of the persons whose initials help to make up the formidable 

 term of Smectymnuns. 



Great Tey was subject to the Marcheta Mulieris — but Mr. Samuel Tymms 

 opines the phrase might mean no more than an innocent fine payable to the 

 lord on the marriage of his vassals. 



At Chingford and at Combes, in Rochford, are noticed some of those very 

 ridiculous tenures on which copyholds are still held ; in commemoration, it must 

 be supposed, of the " wisdom of our ancestors." 



At Great Bradfield was buried the celebrated Wm. Bendlowes, sole serjeant- 

 at-law for 73 days in the reign of Elizabeth. Verily, little serves for distinction 

 sometimes ! 



The London Manual of Medical Chemistry, &c., by Wm. Maugham, 



Surgeon, &c. 



Mr. Maugham's translation of the London Pharmacopoeia has been for some 

 years in the hands of medical students. In the hope of contributing to its 

 further utility, Mr. Maugham has now printed the translation interlinearly, in 

 the Hamiltonian fashion, and considerably extended the notes, which, though 

 excellent in themselves, have been generally complained of^not a common 

 complaint^as being much too concise. Additions have also been made to the 

 botanical, chemical, and medical history of the various articles of the Materia 

 Medica ; and in the new introduction will be found a complete epitome of that 

 portion of chemistry immediately applicable to the purposes of medical men. 

 Mr. Maugham also, like a bold man, has ventured to incorporate several new 

 medicines which have of late years been introduced into practice, but which the 

 London College have not of course yet comprised in their lists. All corporate 

 institutions are sure to keep in the rear. The whole volume, in short, besides 

 being very considerably enlarged, is very considerably improved, and cannot fail 

 of proving generally acceptable. When, by the way, do the College propose to 

 get rid of their Latin, and put forth their Pharmacopoeia in a language intelli- 

 gible to all who have occasion to consult it ? Has any physician had common 

 sense or spirit enough to set the example oi p-escrihiny in the vulgar tongue? 



Fables, and other Pieces, in Verse, by Mary Maria Colling, with 

 SOME Account of the Author by Mrs. Bray. 



Mrs. Bray — a lady too well known herself as the author of numerous clever 

 romances, to be further described — has been in correspondence with Mr. 

 Southey relative to a poet of her own — Mary Maria Colling, a Devonshire serving- 

 maid — who makes a capital pendant to Mr. Southey's recent " uneducated poet." 

 Mary is now twenty-six, and has been " in service" ever since she was fourteen. 

 From her childhood she was remarked as shy and gentle — fond of reading, and 

 indisposed to gadding about. But verses she seems to have made none till 

 about six years ago, when Mr. Bray himself, by repeating in the pulpit Addi- 

 son's Hymn — The Spacious Firmament, &c. prompted the excited girl to 

 attempt a similar H\mn on Creation. While busying herself in the flower- 

 garden, the whole caie of which was consigned to her, she used to fancy the 

 powers talked to tier (Mrs. Bray must mean — to one another). Thus a peony 

 growing near her laurel tree, she fancied the one reproaching the other for not 

 being so fine as itself, and so composed her little fable of the " Peony and the 

 Laurel." "These kind of thoughts used to come in her head in a moment," 

 she said, " and then she turned them into verses and fables" — and all this 

 before she ever heard of fable, except two or three in prose in some child's 

 " sixpenny" book. These little fables constitute the materiel of the volume 

 ■which Mrs. Bray has got up for her ; though there are one or two other pieces 

 indicative of some passion and vivacity. The " Birth of Envy," which we quote. 



