Shorter Notices
The Ancient Capital. A Historian in Search of Winchester. By Hugh Ross Williamson. (Muller. 15s:)
" EMINENT alike as historian and dramatist, novelist and theologian," says the blurb of Mr. Ross Williamson. Certainly the diver- sity of the author's talents is amply displayed in this historical excursus-cum-guide-book. He advances into the field of mediaeval mysticism with all the relish for the esoteric he showed in The Arrow and the Sword, he indulges here and there in his favourite sport of baiting the orthodox historian, finds time in passing casually to dismiss Miss Austen's " tiny prattling circle " and to pillory the architect Butterfield as a vulgarian, and flickers from one view of Winchester to another with a virtuosity as entertaining as it is bewildering.
" You can do ' Winchester, after a fashion, in a day," Mr. Ross Williamson imagines. Heaven help the poor tourist who attempts it with this book as his guide. He would be lost, mentally and physically, in twenty minutes, and many readers with no such ambitions will be inclined to wish that the author had so far yielded to guide-book dogma as to include a map. But readers will find much to enjoy if they have any interest in Winchester beyond the most superficial, or are merely content to read, where even the prejudices are well presented. P. Z.
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