13 NOVEMBER 1920, Page 23

The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge has added

to its excellent series, Helps for Students of History, a valuable Student's Guide to the Manuscripts of the British M useum, by Mr. J. P. Gilson (Is. net), who outlines the history of these vast collections and mentions some of the more important series of charters, State papers and diplomatic correspondence which are preserved at Bloomsbury. Mr. Gilson's hints to the new- comer, on the use of the Manuscript Room catalogues, should save the time both of readers and of the officials. There is unlimited scope for the new London School of Historical Research in the British Museum alone, to say nothing of the Record Office. Another scholarly little volume in the same series is La Guyenne pendant to Domination Anglaise, 115244.53, by the eminent French historian, M. Charles Bement (1s. 4d. net), who gives a compact account of the original sources and of the literature relating to the English rule in Guienne. This rule, he says, was "not oppressive," but milder than the administration at home; Guienne retained its local liberties under the Seneschal of Gascony and the Constable of Bordeaux, the political and financial representatives of the English Crown.