LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 38

LITERARY NOTES.

The four volumes of original State papers of Sir Ralph Sadleir, Ambassador to Scotland in the time of Elizabeth, which formed parb of the Burton Constable Library sold last year, have been acquired by the British Museum. As is well known, these valuable historical documents were examined by Sir Walter Scott, and he prefaced the selection that was published from them in 1809 with a biographical memoir of Sadleir. — Athenaeum.

A curiosity of periodical literature is the publication of a monthly magazine at Thorshavn, in the language of the Faroe Islands. The first number appeared on the 2nd of February. It promises to occupy itself with 11 patriotic," or probably local politics, and with the encouragement of "modern Faroe literature," of which it is to be hoped that a demand may create a supply. The title of the new venture is F6ringatidende. The Manuscript department of the British Museum has recently acquired a large collection of the correspondence and papers of Jeremy Bentham and other members of the family, including his brother Sir Samuel, who, after attaining the rank of a Brigadiergeneral in the Russian service, became civil architect and engineer of the navy of his own country. The collection is contained in about 28 volumes.

Mr William O'Brien's novel, the preparation of which occupied the major portion of his time during his recent imprisonment, will be brought out simultaneously in England and America, and arrangements are being made for the work to be translated into French, German, and Italian. The novel, which is entitled " When We were Boys," will deal largely with the revolutionary movement of 18(57. It will be published at 6s

In view of the probable sale of the worldrenowned, but almost inaccessible, Middlehill Library at Cheltenham, which was formed early in the present century by Sir Thomas Phillipps, the Academy understands that the British jMuseum and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have agreed to unite in securing those MSS. which it is thought of importance to retain in England. The total sum of money for purchases to be guaranteed by these three bodies will probably amount to £20,000.

It is reported from Simla, says the Athenaeum, that Colonel Hammond has been instructed by Sir Frederick Roberts to prepare for publication an abridged and expurgated edition of the " History of the Second Afghan War," which was compiled by Captain S. Pasfield Oliver, R.A., under the orders and supervision of the late Sir Charles M'Gregor, when that officer was Quarter-master-general in India, at least six years ago. It will be remembered that the original history was printed in six volumes by the Intelligence Branch of the Quartermastergeneral's department at Simla and Calcutta, but was suppressed ; and it was made official, and marked " strictly confidential."

Miss Amelia B. Edwards was to arrive in England by the Etruria, which was announced to leave New York on March 29. During her tour in the United States she will have delivered about 116 lectures in all, of which 13 were addressed to colleges and universities, including Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. The Peabody Institute at Baltimore altered its constitution in her favour, so as to permit a woman to lecture there for the first time. Her course of lectures on Egyptology will shortly be published — simultaneously in England and America — with a great number of illustrations, reproducing the lantern slides. Another subject on which she will probably write something is that of American museums, in which she has long taken an interest.

In an interesting article in one of the monthlies for March, the author, referring to the cherry trees brought by Sir Walter Raleigh from the Canary Islands, and planted at Youghal, some of which still thrive, records a remarkable instance of old age. He says : " From the branches of one of these trees—where she had presumably climbed after the tempting fruit — fell Catherine Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond, at the ripe age of 162. The shock caused her death. This spirited and illustrious lady was born about the year 1464, was married in the reign of Edward IV ; lived during the reigns of Edward V, Richard 111, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, and died at the latter end of James I's, or the beginning of Charles I's reign. She is said to have walked in wrath from York to London at the age of 80 to give a bit of her mind to a landlord who would only renew a lease until she was 100, when she had asked for it for the rest of her life.