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For once we find ourselves at issue with Mr. Lang.
' Peveril of the Peak ' overflows with romance. It
casts, moreover, a bright light upon Scott's method
of workmanship ; and if we could spare space to deal
at length with a reissue of a well-known work, we
could find much to say concerning it.
The Romano- British City of Silchester. By Fre- derick Davis, F.S.A. (Andrews & Co.) THE Silchester excavations are described year by year in the volumes of the Archceologia, but that work is costly and in the hands of but few people except Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries. It is true that now and then magazines and newspapers tell their readers what is taking place in that inter- esting spot, but such ephemeral publications have a habit of getting lost, or becoming forgotten ; we are therefore very grateful to Mr. Davis for preparing an account of the recent excavations which is at once lucid, compact, and accurate. His work is short perhaps too short but its author is learned in things Roman as well as in many other directions, so that his statements and suggestions may almost always be received with confidence. We have found nothing whatever in his book that we are inclined to call in question, except the statement that, so far as England is concerned, " not a single Roman place-name has survived." This is surely going much too far. The subject is so involved and intricate that it cannot be discussed here ; but we may remark that our knowledge of the origin of the names of places is only just emerging from the pre- scientific stage, if, indeed, it has as yet attained to that great deliverance, and that it is rash to make up our minds confidently at present one way or the other, though, of course, every competent investi- gator will admit that the surviving names of this class, if there be any in England, are far less numerous than in many other parts of what was once the Roman world.
One of the most important parts of Mr. Davis's book is his account of the way in which earthworms have helped to preserve the remains of ancient buildings. We need not mention that much of what he says has been derived from the researches of Charles Darwin this he has been careful to point out but he has also made independent investigations of his own, which are not only interesting as explaining the present state of Silchester, but are of inde- pendent value as illustrating the habits of the curious annelid creatures of which they treat.
Mr. Davis gives a good account of the remains of a building discovered in 1892, which is usually regarded as a Romano-Christian church. That such it is he entertains no doubt, and thinks it not improbable that the excavations yet to be under- taken may disclose the foundations of other build- ings of the same character.
Autumnal Leaves. By Francis George Heath.
Fourth Edition. (Imperial Press.) ON its first appearance Mr. Heath's delightful volume, in which he drew attention to the beauty of autumnal leaves, won a -warm and well-merited reception. He has now been induced to include it in the attractive series of works issued in most tempting guise by the Imperial Press, and, with the aid of skilled artists, has succeeded in pro- ducing at half the price a volume that vies in ex- cellence with the previous issue. Quite beautiful are the reproductions in colours of the various leaves, and the vignettes of the New Forest and
the illustrations generally have also much grace.
The volume, moreover, is well and pleasingly
written, and will commend itself warmly to the
lover of nature. We know few books likely to
contribute more largely to the delight of the
cultivated lover of nature, or better calculated to
spread a taste for natural beauty among those as
yet unversed in her mysteries. The volume should
be in an easily accessible spot in the library of
every country house.
The Whartons of Wharton Hall. By Edward Ross
Wharton. (Oxford, University Press.) THE publication of this little work, left in MS. by its author, has been a labour of love and piety on the part of his widow. The volume contains a memoir of Wharton reprinted from the Academy, a bibliography of his writings, chiefly philological, and an account of his famous ancestors, "a distin- guished, albeit a turbulent race." A portrait which is a speaking likeness, and other illustrations by Mrs. Wharton, add to the value of a work interest- ing in many respects and entitled to a place in genealogical libraries.
Whitaker's Titled Persons. (Whitaker & Sons.) THE second issue of this useful handbook is a great advance upon its predecessors, having undergone complete revision and been greatly enlarged. It has many features of special interest, and is an almost indispensable supplement to Whitaker's quite indispensable ' Almanack.'
MR. GEORGE RICKWARD has reprinted from vol. vii. of the Archaeological Society's Transactions an important article on ' Colchester in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.' The interest of this extends beyond local antiquaries, and the contents, with some additions, might well appear in a shape even more permanent.
fjfoikea ixr
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