LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 34

LITERARY NOTES.

It is announced that Colonel Knolly has a undertaken to write a history of the Scots Guards, making use of the ample materials which were collected for that purpose by the late Sir William Knollys. General Sheridan fortunately completed his memoirs a couple of months before bis death, and the manuscript is now in the hands of the publishers. To his horror the warrior found the two thick volumes 10 pages short of the stipulated length, and he was more put to ib to furnish the needed " copy " than the would have been at winning a battle. Charles W. Darling, of Utica, New York, owns a rare and perfect copy of a Bible printed in folio by Anthony Koburger, of Nuremberg, in 1483. It is profusely illustrated with most extraordinary and complicated woodcuts, in one of which, owing to a misinterpretation in the translation from the Hebrew, Moses appears with horns. At a library sale in Paris a short time since £280 was paid for a copy. of "Les Amours Pastoralis de Daphnis et Chole," which formerly belonged to Madame de Pompadour, having her arms and monogram engraved on the cover. Another copy of the same work which was formerly in the library of the Chateau Giron fetched £270. The largest sum ever known to have been paid for a single book was £10,000, which the German Government gave for a vellum missal, originally presented to King Henry VIII by Pope Leo X. Charles II gave it to an ancestor of the Duke of Hamilton and it became the property of the German Government at the sale of the Duke's library a few years ago. In 1868 Napoleon 111 obtained from the heirs of Talleyrand a postponement of 22 years more before the writings of the former can be published. This period will be ended in May 1890. The manuscript is in the hands of the Duke de Montmorency, second nection with his work that will surprise son of the Duke de Talleyrand, grandson of the writer, the Prince de Talleyrand. When Herbert Spencer dies no doubt there will be pecuniary revelations in conmany. He has long been England's foremost thinker ; no other man has laboured harder or succeeded better in widely influencing modern thought, yet his works were all brought out by the private expenditure of himself and friends, and it is doubtful if any pecuniary profit has ever accrued from them. A sequel to " Bootle's Baby " and " Mignon's Husband," entitled " Bootle's Children," is now appearing in the pages of the Graphic. Those who have not read Mrs Burnett's charming works should do so ; they are very interesting and pathetic ; her children are very natural. Some of them may be wise beyond their years, but the authoress has drawn many of her inspirations from her own interesting boys. Mr Rider Haggard is another successful novelist, and is rapidly making a fortune with his works of fiefcion. He has already received about £10,000 as his share of the profits arising from the sale of his novels. For the writer of fiction in France Ihe great and most immediate source of inro'm.is the feuilleton, which is so irnpoitant a feature in French newspapers and magazines. Every year the demand for fiction increases, and every year the space devoted by the newspapers to politics diminishes, except at rare intervals when some grave crisis occurs ; but even then the feuilleton can never be sacrificed to political matter. During the last Presidential excitement, for instance, the circulation of the Petit Journal ran up beyond the round million; but its political articles were neither longer nor more numerous than usual, and its two feuilleton novels occupied their allotted space, without rebate of a single line. — " Atlantic Monthly." The Academy says that the cartulary of the Abbey of Winchcombe, in the County of Gloucester, which was missing for many years from the muniment room at Sherborno, and was supposed to be lost has recently been found and restored to Lord Sherborne. With his permission it has been carefully transcribed ; and it is proposed to print a limited number of copies for subscribers only. The cartulary contains 840 documents, consisting of Papal Bulls, charters, confirmations, and other records relating to the abbey from its dedication, A.D..811 to A.D. 1422. The charters contain not only the names of the parties, but also those of all the witnesses, too often wanting in such records. The work will form two volumes, uniform with the Roll series ; and the editing of it has been undertaken by the Rev. David Royce, vicar of Nether Swell, Stow-ou-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. It will be news to half the world that the Russian nobles are sedulous collectors of books and manuscripts. Prince Woronzoff, for instance, has a library of 12,000 volumes in St. Petersburg, and possesses another equally large at Alupka. The Princess Lunoff's library contains nearly 13,000 books, most of which were collected by her father, Bibikoff. In Slavonic literature it is especially rich, and it contains about 600 works in various languages on numismatics. The late Minister of Justice, Count Panin, had a library of 11,000 volumes, which was remarkable for an encyclopedic series of works relating to the legislation of the different European States. He had also considerable libraries in the Crimea and at Marsino, near Moscow. The library of Count Scheremetjeff, the foundations of which were laid by the conqueror of Livonia, contains 25,000 volumes, many incuritibula, and a perfect treasury of ecclesiastical music. The present owner has himself increased his great literary heritage by the addition of nearly 12,000 volumes. He has been a diligent collector of books bearing upon Russian and Slavonic history and topography.

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