A History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke.
By Francis Joseph Baigent and James Edwin Millard. (C. J. Jacob, Basingstoke; Simpkin and Marshall, London.)—The authors have devoted to the production of this work a careful industry which is beyond all praise, and the local publisher deserves great credit for the way in which the work has been brought out. One might, at first sight, question the wisdom of devoting to a town of no great size or importance a stout volume of many hundred pages. But if the thing is to be done at all, it had better be done well. Dr. Millard and his coadjutor have fairly exhausted their subject. The book is for Basingstoke people, and for all interested in local history as 'ci-a is ad. Future writers will have little more to do than carry it up to the time of publication. There is nothing very noteworthy about Basingstoke people or Basingstoke history. Of its worthies, the most famous were the Wartons. Thomas Warton (1688-1745), Professor of Poetry at Oxford, died here, and his younger son, Thomas Warton, was born at the Rectory in 1727. The most famous event in the history of the town was the siege of Basing House ; we have the story told in this volume. The book is full of interesting matter of various kinds.
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