LAST LEAVES. ON page 317 of the first volume of "English Writers" an account was given of Dr. Grein's argument for the placing of Hrothgar's mead-hall Heorot at Hjortholm, on the east coast of Sæland. After a lecture to my Anglo-Saxon class, in which this theory was mentioned, I was informed by a Danish student, whose home had been for seven or eight years in Hjortholm, that no argument could be founded upon the name of the place, which was originally not Hjortholm, but Hörsholm. A poor German princess who had married Christian VI. built a house there some time in the second quarter of the eighteenth century (the house is now no more), and it was she who miscalled the place Hirschholm. This was afterwards translated into Hjortholm, but the people of the place are now wishing to go back to the old name of Hörsholm. A newly-published part—the sixty-second-of "Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach und Cultur-Geschichte der Germanischen Völker," consists of a study of Beowulf by Bernhard Ten Brink (Strassburg, Karl J. Trübner, 1888). This last contribution to the study of the Poem argues for its origin in England. Let me call the attention of students not only to this work, but also to the published first volume of Professor Ten Brink's "Geschichte der Englischen Litteratur," which appeared in 1877, and of which there is a good English translation. The volume reaches to the time of Wyclif, and its well-weighed sentences are compact with the results of thoughtful study. It is an inexpensive book, which I trust that many readers of these volumes will place side by side with them upon a handy shelf. The account of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels in the second volume of "English Writers" was left as it had been written in 1864. It needs, therefore, this added information, which involves a correction of what Benjamin Thorpe had said of the relative value of the MSS. : An edition of the Gospels in Anglo-Saxon was planned and begun by John Mitchell Kemble, who did not live to complete more than 192 pages of the edition of the Gospel of Matthew, the remaining 39 pages being edited by Mr. Hardwick, and published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press in 1858, as "The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions, synoptically arranged with collations of the best MSS." This work has been continued by Professor W. W. Skeat, who has produced, as Kemble intended, the most perfect text attainable. The Gospel of St. Mark was published in 1871; the Gospel of St. Luke in 1874; the Gospel of St. John in 1878, each quarto, giving the Gospel it contains in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions synoptically arranged, with collations exhibiting all the Readings of all the MSS. The Gospel of Matthew in Kemble's edition has also been revised by Prof. Skeat, and reprinted, so that we have now a complete standard text of the Gospels in First-English. The most ancient MS. is one in the Cotton Collection (Otho Ci.). It was much injured by the fire of Oct. 23, 1731, but has been very carefully repaired. The first fragment saved is part of Mark vii. 22. Luke and John are nearly complete. A charter relating to Aldhelm Abbot of Malmesbury was inserted between the Gospels of Luke and John. The Bodleian MS. 441 was copied from the Cotton, and its date, as well as the date of a MS. of the Gospels in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is before the Conquest. Another MS. in the Cambridge University Library was written at Exeter about the year 1050. The two other MSS. are Hatton 38 in the Bodleian, and the Royal MS. 1 A xiv., in the British Museum. The northern texts are derived from the Lindisfarne MS. or Durham Book (Cotton Collection, Nero D 4), and the glosses of the Rushworth MS. in the Bodleian (Auct. D ii. 19). These glosses were by two priests, Farman and Owun, in the monastery of Harwood, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The readers of this volume may be glad to know that "Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail," by Mr. David Nutt, will be published in a week or two. "Le Conte del Graal," a poem of over 60,000 lines, was first printed in 1866-71, in six volumes, edited by Charles Potvin, from a MS. in the Library at Mons. Its authors were Chrestien of Troyes to verse 10,601, then Gautier de Doulens to line 39,493, then Manessier, who finished it in 45,379 lines, and then Gerbert, who added over 15,000 lines by interpolation. Mr. Nutt, who has kindly obliged me with a sight of his proof sheets, has collated these sections with all other records of the Graal legend, "to determine as far as possible the age and relationship to one another of the different versions which have come down to us, to exhibit the oldest form of the story as we have it, and to connect it with Celtic traditional belief and literature." Should I apologise for having found it convenient sometimes to use the old terms Langue d'Oc and Langue d'Oïl in place of Provençal and French? The Paladin in Wieland's Oberon who made for Babylon found that his way was through wildernesses where "die schöne Sprache von Ok was unerörtes war ;" and so may I. It is not long, however, since MM. de Tourtoulon and Bringuier wrote an "Étude sur la limite géographique de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oil" (Archives des Missions, III. Série, Tom. III. Paris, 1876). Oïl, as an old shape of Oui, is said to have been formed from a contracted sentence, "Hoc ille (est)"; there is taste of the grape in the old wine of Oc and Oïl. Good scholars are here and there to be heard grumbling who condemn all but the latest fashions as devoutly as the ladies who buy bonnets. And yet there are some truths in the world older than yesterday, and there have been prettier bonnets than those worn to-day. The fourth volume of "English Writers" will, I believe, be ready early in December. It will describe the literature of THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, and will include results of a new study of vexed questions upon the life and works of Chaucer. PRINTED BY CASSELL & Company, Limited, La Belle Sai vage, London,. E.C. 20.688. H. M. Illustrated, Fine-Art, and other Volumes. Abbeys and Churches of England and Wales, The: Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial. 21S. After London; or, Wild England. By the late RIChard Jefferies. 3s. 6d. Along Alaska's Great River. By Lieut. SCHWATKA. 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