14 MAY 1904, Page 25

English Architecture. By Thomas Denham Atkinson. (Methuen and Co. 3s.

6d. net.)—Mr. Atkinson gives in his introduction a useful bibliography of his subject, beginning with Thomas Rickman's work published in 1817. A complete collection would be no trifling affair, for some of ,these architectural books are very costly. The little volume before us is likely, we should say, to be useful. It is well illustrated, and it is of a convenient size for a handbook properly so-called. After all, as our author rightly says, "the true way to study architecture, the only really satisfactory way, and by far the most attractive, is the close examination of the buildings themselves."