of the Crusaders' times
must have been the _Boa constrictor_. If you will look into St. Jerome's
_Vitas Patrum_, you will find that he mentions the trail of a "draco" seen
in the sand in the Desert, which appeared as if a _great beam_ had been
dragged along. I think it not likely that a crocodile would have {158}
ventured so far from the banks of the Nile as to be seen in the Desert.

P.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

The members of the Percy Society have just received the third and
concluding volume of _The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, a new Text,
with Illustrative Notes, edited by Thomas Wright, Esq_. It is urged as an
objection to Tyrwhitt's excellent edition of the _Canterbury Tales_, that
one does not know his authority for any particular reading, inasmuch as he
has given what he considered the best among the different MSS. he
consulted. Mr. Wright has gone on an entirely different principle.
Considering the Harleian MS. (No. 7334.) as both "the oldest and best
manuscript he has yet met with," he has "reproduced it with literal
accuracy," and for the adoption of this course Mr. Wright may plead the
good example of German scholars when editing the _Nibelungen Lied_. That
the members of the Society approve the principle of giving complete
editions of works like the present, has been shown by the anxiety with
which they have looked for the completion of Mr. Wright's labours; and we
doubt not that, if the Council follow up this edition of the _Canterbury
Tales_ with some other of the collected works which they have
announced--such as those of Hoccleve, Taylor the Water Poet, &c.--they will
readily fill up any vacancies which may now exist in their list of members.

Mr. Parker has just issued another handsome, and handsomely illustrated
volume to gladden the hearts of all ecclesiologists and architectural
antiquaries. We allude to Mr. Freeman's _Essay on the Origin and
Development of Window Tracery in England_, which consists of an improved
and extended form of several papers on the subject of Tracery read before
the Oxford Architectural Society at intervals during the years 1846 and
1848. To those of our readers who know what are Mr. Freeman's abilities for
the task he has undertaken, the present announcement will be a sufficient
inducement to make them turn to the volume itself; while those who have not
yet paid any attention to this