TABLE TALK. THE A CALENDAR OF THE INNER TEMPLE RECORDS. HE process of calendaring our national records, first started by my old friend Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy and continued with unabated zeal by succeeding Keepers of the Records, has spurred other custodians of important documents to emulative effort, and it seems likely that another half century or less will see all manuscript treasures of importance, if not placed beyond the chances of loss by theft, burning, or decay, at least rendered available for purposes of scholarship. Among the earliest of the great public bodies to calendar the more important of these documents is the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, the first volume of whose records has been edited by Mr. F. A. Inderwick, Q.C., and published by order of the Masters of the Bench. Mr. Inderwick is a well-known antiquary, who in the pauses of incessant profession at labour has found time to write "Side Lights on the Stuarts," "The King's Peace," "The Story of King Edward and New Winchelsea," and "The Prisoner of War." The task of calendaring could scarcely have been entrusted to more trustworthy or competent hands. But one volume has as yet appeared, a herald of more to come. deals with the period between 21 Henry VII. (1505), when surviving records begin, and 45 Elizabeth (1603). The records are ushered in by an historical introduction, which is to some extent a digest of what is most valuable in the contents, and a history, not only of the Inner Temple, but of the Temple as a whole. Not the earliest records are those of the Inner Temple, those of Lincoln's Inn going farther back. They are earlier, however, by some years than the records of Gray's Inn, and begin about the same time as those of the Middle Temple, supporting thus the idea which is borne out in other respects that the place in which the documents appertaining to both the Temples were originally kept was the same. 1 H. Sotheran & Co. This SOME THE HOOSIER POET. OME few years ago I had the privilege of meeting at a brilliant gathering Mr. James Whitcomb Riley, the American poet, and of hearing him recite one or two of his short poems. So simple, touching, and pathetic were these, dealing generally with children, that his subsequent work has been followed by me with extreme interest. In England Mr. Riley is known to the few; in America he has won widespread recognition, and those who follow the best American magazines, Scribner's or the Century, look out in them for his sweet, homely, thoroughly human lyrics, ordinarily in what is known as the Hoosier dialect. Whence is derived the word Hoosier -unfamiliar, doubtless, to my readers as myself-I know not. It is now, however, in current use in the United States, and is applied to the supposed speech of the inhabitants of Indiana. Americans have reached a point at which interest in dialects and local customs is natural, and are beginning to look after their own antiquities. More than any living writer, Mr. Riley has popularised the dialect of his own state, and his Hoosier poems are among the most characteristic productions of the present day. Mr. Riley's writings are, however, not confined to dialect poems, or indeed to poems, since as a prose writer he is with some even more popular than as a poet. In the mingled humour and pathos of his prose narratives he comes nearer Dickens than any other writer. In his child poems he is chiefly noteworthy for the delicacy and fidelity of his descriptions, his insight into child life, and his sympathy with childish preconceptions and aspirations. Our own Robert Louis Stevenson has been happy in his treatment of child themes and his appeal to children. I doubt, however, whether his sympathy even is as full as that of Mr. Riley. MR. RILEY'S VERSE AND PROSE. HE latest volume of Mr. Whitcomb Riley's poems is entitled "A Child-World," and is published in Indianapolis and Kansas City. It lends itself not very readily to quotations, which indeed to any adequate extent I may not attempt. A few lines, not at all the best, are all on which I venture. After giving a picture of an Indiana home, its occupants and visitors, the volume is made up of sketches and stories narrated to or by the children. The child-world itself consists of 'Indianapolis, The Bowen-Merrill Company; London, Longmans & Co. A simple old frame house-eight rooms in all- But very hopeful Indiana town, The upper story looking squarely down Upon the main street and the main highway The first inhabitants of the town Will make that old road blossom with romance Following the description of the spot comes that Of the five happy little Hoosier chaps Inhabiting this wee world all their own. Very sorry am I that I cannot introduce my readers to them all— This Well, Annie had just stooped to lift up one o' the little girls when the feller turned and the'r eyes met. "Annie, my wife!" he says; and Annie, she kind o' gave a little yelp like, and come a flutterin' down in his arms, and the jug of wortar rolled clean acrost the road, and turned a somerset and knocked the cob out of its mouth and jist laid back and hollered "Good-good-good-good-good!" like ef it knowed what was up, and was jist as glad and tickled as the rest of us. Neither in Rabelais nor Molière does a bottle speak better than that. SYLVANUS URBAN. |