Literary Views And Reviews

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24896, 8 June 1946, Page 5

Literary Views And Reviews

FOLDER

Two "little necrologies,” as George Saintsbury used to call his own bnet memorial pieces, from recent issues oi the "Observer":

THE man of epigram Logan Peaisall Smith . . linked American with English letters. Haverford with Ballioi. Oxford with Chelsea, words with w it One remembers him attending gaily at the odd war-time celebration of -Max's’ 70th Birthday at the Players' Club. He was old then, but m his own world, on that both august and spirL-U occasion. His sense of style and his master}' of epigram and aphorism, typified tn his volumes of “Trivia,” made him rank as a Fellow in all common-rooms of the discerning mind. His charmingly written autobiography, “Unforgotten Years,” was smothered in the Munich crises and is insufficiently remembered. His volume "On Beading Shakespeare.” his studies of Milton and Wotton, and his researches into the quality of words, showed his favourites; his "Trivia” will probably live longest. In these were his peculiar felicity t>f thought and phrase. “A. G. G.”

A. G. Gardiner . . . was a great reader as well as a great writer, and his editing of the old "Daily News” was done with the writer’s pen m hand. His weekly article was a central feature and gave a lead in style and creed for the strong, varied, and even boisterous team which he so shrewdly collected. Many, notably G. K. Chesterton, never wrote better than for Gardiner. “We took delight in A. G. G.»” writes S. K. Ratcliffe, one of his team, "not least because of his entire Englishness. He might, like a younger colleague, have described himself as a pure East Saxon. Loving the hills as well as the home counties, he was yet a Londoner, a Johnsonian, a clubman, valued most highly by a circle of good friends at the Reform. You did not easily come to the end of his reading. He was an exceedingly happy man. In talk and in affection he revealed (the phrase is Cyril Connolly’s) that ‘magical continuity of being’ which is the fine attribute of age.”

In less than a month, at the request of the Soviet Union, early this year, the Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R. got together a representative “Life in Shakespeare’s England ’ exhibition for dispatch to the Moscow Shakespeare Festival. Many of the exhibits, mainly the art photograph reproductions, will remain permanently in Moscow. Many devoted readers of “The Diary of a Nobody” will be grateful to Mr Grant Richards, the veteran publisher, for a letter of his in the “Sunday Times”: Sir,—Mr Hugh Kingsmill in his ‘Frank Harris” tells us that the character of Murray Posh’s friend in “The Diary of a Nobody," Mr Hardfur Huttie, "a very clever writer for the American papers,’ was drawn from Frank Harris. Certainly Weedon Grossmith’s drawing of Huttie does not carry out this idea, although his Huttie has a formidable moustache. . One character I can identify beyond a doubt—that of Mr Burwm-Fosselton, “who not only looked rather like Mr Irving, but seemed to imagine he was the celebrated actor.” As a fact, Fosselton, in words and in drawing, was Tom Heslewood. one of Irving’s young men and still designing- costumes and “producing, thanks be. At one time Mr Heslewood lived in Canonbury with Weedon GrosSmith. GRANT RICHARDS. Moor Park, Farnham.

It is a relief to turn from the anxious controversies of Paris and Bikini, the Ruhr and Azerbaijan, American coal and British bread, to such a nice old-fashioned popping as followed somebody’s request, in a London weekly, for the reason why the Thames, near Oxford, is called the Isis. Mr Eric Sandiford wrote to explain:

Sir,—Miss Fuge's question should have been “Why are the lower reaches erf the Isis known as the Thames?” The answer .is that Thames means simply “broad Isis, as can be seen in its old name Tamesis. “Tam” means broad or quiet and is the Anglo-Saxon ancestor of the modern English "tame.”

Isis, derived from the Celtic, is only or.e of many examples of duplication in river names and means “water-water.” So that Thames means “broad-water-water.” ERIC SANDIFORD. Westfield road, Flint. Mr Kenneth Brown dug deeper: Sir,—Dean Church (1815-90) in his “Summer Days” (1880) states that “the pseudo-classic name of Isis for the Thames was originated by Leland.” He wrote (circa 1535—though his Itinerary was not published until 1710)—“the chief Streme of Isis ran afore betwixt Ander•ey isle and Culneham.” Camden (“Britannia,” 1586) gave currency to Thames as being a combination tf the names Thame and Isis, and this was adopted in January, 1595-6 by Spen•er, who called the river above Dorchester Isis (Faerie Queene Bk IV. Canto X, Stanza 24). but this derivation is entirely fanciful; for Caesar in 55 B.C. knew London’s river as Tamesis (“De Bell. Gall.” V. 11) and in no early authority is Isis used.

In 1623 the first Statute (21 Jac 1 c. «) for improving the river near Oxford called it Thames and not Isis, and it was not until March 22. 1751, that the name Isis received statutory sanction »n an “Act for the better carrying on, and regulating the Navigation of the Rivers Thames and Isis” (24 Geo. 11, c. 16). KENNETH BROWN. Upper Park road, N.W.3.

But even Mr Brown did not come off without a knock, when Professor W. J. Gruffydd, M.P., took up his flail and Put a proper burnish on Mr Sandi-

Sir,—lt is regrettable that amateur etymologists do not realise that philology, including the study of place-names, is an exact science, and one must deplore such assertions as those made by Mr Sandiford about Thames and Isis. He says that O. E. “ ‘Tam’ means ‘broad,’ ” that Tamesis” is O. E. “tarn” and Celtic J” B ,** and that Celtic “Isis” means all three assertions are false. "Tamesis,” as Mr Kenneth Brown says. • mentioned by Caesar—which disposes its O. E. origin; “tarn” (Mod. E. tame) Coes not mean “broad” but "tame,” being with the Latin “domare.” - » correct explanation of the name Isis is that given by Mr Brown, but n was not Leland who invented this He (or someone before him) J-atmised an older “Ise,” which is found “ me Patent Rolls for 1347 and “Isa” in mgden’s “Polychronicon” (1350). This 'Y a s formed artificially by dividing Middle English “Tamise” into “Tam” •nd Ise.” W J. GRUFFYDD. Tae Athenaeum. ? Mr Molotov could only do his stuff Fjjto Gorki Club and Mr Bevin Poke back at him from the Athenaeum, •umer would be i-cumen in.

LONDON. May 29.—“ Mr Shaw was enough to write me about this Setter,” said the Chancellor of the exchequer. Dr. Dalton, in the House Jt Commons, when a member drew nis attention to a report that Bernard had transferred his property in to a voluntary civic improvement for the good of the community. P a v° n . added that he thought giush legislation provided for simiin p a^ s / ers by public-spirited persons ori toin. He was making inquiries.