LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 34

LITERARY NOTES.

According to the latest computation, there are published in this country no fewer than 1600 magazines of all sorts and sizes. It has been decided at Oxford to place £5000 at the disposal of the curators of the Bodleian, for the purchchase of MSS. from a very rare and valuable collection which is shortly to be offered for sale by private contract. Mrs Oliphant, the famous novelist, is about to proceed to the Holy Land for a few months, and has undertaken to write a descriptive account of her travels in that country, which will be published during the autumn by Macmillan. Messrs "Black, of Edinburgh, have just acquired for their London establishment a large block on the west side of Soho square extending back to Dean street. The firm will remove its head-qnarters to Soho square next summer ; but we are glad to say it has no intention of severing its connection with Edinburgh, where the business was commenced at the beginning of the century by the late Mr Adam Black.— Athentcum. One or two years ago Mr Browning was presented by his admirers with what was possibly a unique gift. It was discovered by his friends that he had nothing like a complete collection of his own works, and on one of his birthdays a deputation from the society took him a set of these volumes to replenish his library. Dr yon Dollinger some time before his death intrusted the translation of his last work, "Academic Studies," to an English lady, Miss Warre. Her English version is now completed and in the printer's hands, and will be published in a few weeks by Mr Murray. " These famous essays," as Mr Gladstone has called them, include " The Jews in Europe," "Dante," "Madam de Maintenon," &c. Mr John S. Farmer, the author cf " Americanisms," has now ready for issue to subscribers (through Mr A. P. Watt) the first volume of his new work, "Slang and its Analogues." In form it follows the lines of Dr Murray's " New English Dictionary " ; and it comprises the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three centuries, with synonyms in French, German, Italian, Sec. The remaining two volumes of the work will follow at short intervals. The sixth volume of the " History of the Irish Confederation and War in Ireland," by Mr J. T. Gilbert, F.S.A., will, it is expected, be issued towards the close of the present month. In it are included many original letters and papers, hitherto unpublished, relative to the affairs of England and Ireland from 1646 to 1648, illustrated with portraits and facsimiles. The work, it is stated, will be completed in seven volumes. Mr John Nicholson, of the Hull Literary Club, is now at work on a volume cf " Folk Lore of the East Riding of Yorkshire," which will be ready for early publication. A novel feature will be a chapter headed " Leech Craft," dealing with the homely remedies of bygone times. Dr Wood, the Medical Officer of Health for Driffield district, is rendering important help to this part of the book ; and Mr William Andrews and other well-known collectors of local lore have placed their gleanings at the disposal of Mr Nicholson. Messrs Blackwood and Sons will (writes the Athenseum) immediately publish the correspondence between Mr Pitt and the Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1781 to 1787. The letters throw much fresh light upon the conduct of Grattan's Parliament, upon the condition of the country, the factious condupt of the Irish leaders* and upon the early ideas for establishing a union with Great Britain, This correspondence was collected and edited by Earl Stanhope for the Rutland family, and a few copiea privately printed ; but the volume seems to have been lost sight of until it was unexpectedly recovered by the present Duke of Rutland when arranging his family papers. The Duke of Rutland has prefaced tho volume by an introductory note, and this important correspondence will now for the first time be laid bafore the public. In course of a discussion in the columns of the Dumfries Standard as to the autorship of "Annie Laurie," a correspondent recently mentioned that he understood that with the exception of the first verse— which, he said, was part of an old ballad — the song was the work of Lady John Scott, a sister-in-law of the late Duke of Buccleugh, and that she was also the composer of the tune. The editor of the Standard communicated with her ladyship, and he has received the following reply, which sets finally at rest a muchdisputed point : — " Spottiswood, Lauder, 4th. — Lady John Scott, in answer to the editor of the Dumfries Standard, begs to say that she did compose the tune to ' Annie Laurie,' and altered the words a little to what she thought would sound better in singing. The tune of ' Annie Laurie ' she had before made for the words of an old ballad called ' Kempye Kaye' but being at Marchmont (Sir Hugh Campbell's, whose wife was her sister), she one day met with Allan Cunningham's poetry in the library there, and was nmch taken with the words of ' Annie Laurie.' She adapted the music she had composed for ' Kempe Kaye ' to them. The second verse of Allan Cunningham's words begins, " She's backit like a peacock, She's breasted like a swan,' &c, which Lady John did not like. She therefore altered it. The third verse she made entirely. She sang the song to Sir Hugh and Lady Campbell to see whether they liked it, and they did like it. Lady John long afterwards published it with some others, fnr the hpnofit of tho widows and olnlflt-Ti ot (he sol<li< : r., killed in tin- Orlli f i '''la 'lv c ]iv: tno i, itiu tn ' Ahiiiu 1; Irk •ii "U.-ii-Juurmi v;i- : br-M. il'C \vai hJiiu £>;• L;i 'v '.vim bi;o'f ii i<v,\\ ')c 'ai-n {.ioncd, is a /ih 'd rtici.'nu of :t!i;ioiic S^.itc'j family, tin .s;joth.->\vo'/li. ol Spoiti<-v.-<j v"\ in Jyi „<].;/ '!:>:■ , ,-vi i 'in-- ,o •: incil the i\ l'.,UiCed . gu i-f •i ).iut M) yam, Mie residi,h at Kirkbank, ncai Judbmgh..

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