_Bell at Rouen_ (Vol. viii., p. 448.).--Your valuable correspondent W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A., has probably taken his account of the great bell in the cathedral at Rouen from a note made before the French Revolution of 1792-3, because the George d'Ambois, which was once considered the largest bell in Europe (it was thirteen feet high, and eleven feet in diameter), excepting that at Moscow, shared the destructive fate of many others at that eventful period, and was melted down for cannon. In 1814 the bulb of its clapper was outside the door of a blacksmith's shop, as you go out of the city towards Dieppe. It was pointed out to me by a friend with whom I was then travelling--a gentleman of the neighbourhood, who was at Rouen at the time it was brought there--and there, if I mistake not, but I cannot find my note, I saw it again within the last ten years.
_Smiths and Robinsons_ (Vol. ix., p. 148.).--Arms of Smith of Curdley, co. Lancaster: Argent, a cheveron sable between three roses gules, barbed, vert seeded, or.
Robinson (of Yorkshire): Vert, a cheveron between three roebucks trippant or. Crest, a roebuck as in the arms. Motto, "Virtute non verbis."
Robinson of Yorkshire, as borne by Lord Rokeby: Vert, on a cheveron or, between three bucks trippant of the last, as many quatrefoils gules. Crest, a roebuck trippant or.
_Churchill's Grave_ (Vol. ix., p. 123.).--If I am not mistaken, there is a tablet to the memory of Churchill, with a more lengthy inscription, within the church of St. Mary, Dover, towards the western end of the south aisle.
Before proceeding to notice any of the books which we have received this week, we will call the attention of the publishing world to two important works which we know to be now wanting a publisher, namely, I. _A Syriac-English Lexicon to the New Testament and Book of Psalms_, arranged alphabetically, with the derivatives referred to their proper roots, and a companion of the principal words in the cognate languages; and II. _A Syriac-English Grammar_, translated and abridged from Hoffman's larger work.
Samuel Pepys is the dearest old gossip that ever lived; and every new edition of his incomparable Diary will serve but to increase his reputation as the especial chronicler of his age. Every page of it abounds not only in curious indications of the tone and feelings of the times, and the character of the writer, but also in most graphic illustrations of the social condition of the country. It is this that renders it a work which calls for much careful editing and illustrative annotation, and consequently gives to every succeeding edition new value. Well pleased are we, therefore, to receive from Lord Braybrooke a fourth edition, revised and corrected, of the _Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys_. and well pleased to offer our testimony to the great care with which its noble editor has executed his duties. Thanks to his good judgment, and to the great assistance which he acknowledges to have received from Messrs. Holmes, Peter Cunningham, Yeowell, &c., his fourth edition is by far the best which has yet appeared, and is the one which must hereafter be referred to as the standard one. The Index, too, has been revised and enlarged, which adds no little to the value of the book.