14 MAY 1921, Page 24

The Builders of Milford. By Flora Thomas. (Haverford- west :

Pembrokeshire Telegraph. 3s. 6d.)—Miss Thomas relates from old family papers the curious story of an American colony in South Wales. The Quaker whale-fishers of Nantucket remained loyal to the mother-country at the American Revolu- tion and migrated to Nova Scotia. Finding that colony too remote from their English market, they accepted Charles Greville's offer of land in Milford Haven, belonging to his uncle Sir William Hamilton, the husband of the too famous Lady Hamilton. The Starbucks and Folgers and other Nantucket families began to build their new town of Milford in 1793, and were soon joined by the Rotches who had gone first to Dunkirk. By 1802, when Nelson and the Hamiltons visited Milford, the town was built and had a comfortable hotel where the Admiral was entertained. Nelson apparently induced the Admiralty to use the Haven, and to build warships at Milford Docks until 1814, when the naval establishment was removed to Pembroke Dock. The Milford whale fishery did not last very long : probably the Napoleonic wars killed it. But the new port found other trades and has thriven quietly ever since.

Handbook of the Early Christian Fathers; = By Ernest Leigh_ Bennett. (Williams and Norgate. 21s. net.)—We may com- mend this carefully written and dispassionate book as an intro- duction to the study of the Fathers from St. Clement of Beme to St. Augustine. The author deals in successive chapters with the chief leaders of the Church in the first four centuries, sketching their lives and summarizing their principal works with salient quotations. He abstains from trying " to grind the axe of any particular section of Christianity," and he certainly does not take either the ordinary Roman• or the Anglican view of familiar controversies. He draws freely on well-known authorities, but he is evidently well versed-in the texts. His chapters on St. Athanasitis, St. Gregory of Nyasa, and St. Augustine are especially interesting. Many people who would like to know something about the Christian Fathers but are deterred by the technical difficulty of their writings will find Mr. Leigh-Bennett's book helpful and stimulating.