Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

of the MASONIC MAGAZINE , and of a History of Kirkham which I have not seen , is preparing a new History of Garstang for the Cheetham Society , which , from the pen of so competent an antiquary , cannot be otherwise than instructive . The Gherestane of Domesday BookBaines supposed that

, name " to imply the church pool ; '' whilst Dr . Whitaker looked upon Garstang as its Saxon name , derived from Gari or Garri , a personal appellation , and stang , from the Latin stangnum , a pool . Of more importance to the student of English

constitutional history is that relic of a polity much older than the Norman Conquest , which existed in the constablewiek of Garstang until a recent period , viz . the election of constables on a hillock adjoining the river Wyre , writing their names on

slips of wood , & c , an evident lingering of some of the freeburgh customs of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors , if not of the Celtic tribes themselves . It would be not only curious , but of great value as well , to all who wish to study the history of our English liberties , to search forrelics of similar customs in other parts of the country ; for if not preserved now , all traces of them will soon

be lost for ever . I remember in my boyhood the election of constables for Langhargh wapentake taking place at the Langbargh whinstone quarry , where the hi gh road crosses from Stokesley to Gisbro ' , but am sorry to say I never was present . Now that I am writing and publishing a History

of the district , how I wish I had witnessed the proceedings , shorn as they undoubtedly were of their ancient fair proportions . Yet one might have discovered a perfect bone , or so much of one , as it were , as would have enabled one to describe the

whole skeleton , and in some measure restore it for the readers , as geologists do the extinct animals of the prehistoric past . Of Col . Fishwick ' s industry , his recentlypublished "Lancashire Library" is a fair example , giving a bibliographical account

of books on topography , biography , history , science , and miscellaneous literature , relating to the County Palatine , including an account of Lancashire tracts , pamphlets , and sermons , printed before the year 1720 , with collections , bibliographical , critical , and biograpical notes on the books and authors . Such a work , though necessarily deficient in some things , must have taken

long and laborious years in its compilation , and application which would have been worse punishment than tearing oakum in a prison to any but a true lover of books , —which , as the wise bishop of Durham ( Richard de Bury ) Well declared

nearly six centuries ago , " ai-e teachers whose instructions are unaccompanied with blows or harsh words ; who demand neither food nor wages : you visit them , they are alert ; if you want them , they secrete not themselves ; should you mistake their

meaning , they complain not , nor ridicule your ignorance , be it ever so gross . " Col . Fishwick is no mere bookmaker . " Under the title of the' Literature of Lancashire , '' ' says he , " I have not included books which were published in the county , or were

written by Lancashire men , yet do not in any way refer to the county . Works to be included in my list must be written about or refer to Lancashire places , persons , or things . The only exceptionto this rule has been made in the case of some few

theological pamphlets printed in the seventeenth century , which are so curious and valuable that their admission will not be regretted . " It is not a book from which I can cull my readers a few choice extracts , so as to set them a longing for the whole .

It is essentially a book of reference , and a valuable one too . No public library , and no scholar ' s private library , will be comp lete without it . Parti , treats of Topography ; II . of Biography and Family History ; III . of Poetry , Fiction , and

Miscellany ; IV . of Works partly relating to Lancashire ; V . of Tracts and Pamphlets printed before 1720 (" as a rule , " he says , " Tracts and Pamphlets printed since 1720 are excluded , because after that date their number is so great , and many of them so perfect valueless , that to have included them would have defeated the

object in view " ); and Part VI . favours us with an account of Sermons and Theological Treatises ; added to which we have Indexes which , in addition to the alphabetical and chronological arrangement , makes the contents of this handsome quarto volume of much easier access . Had Col .

Fishwick done nothing more than compiled and published this very valuable work , he would have deserved well of Lancashire and of the literary world It is one of those useful books which can never pay its