Messrs. Methuen's valuable new series of "Country Archaeologies," which began
well with volumes on Middlesex and Kent, is continued in a first-rate Archaeology of Berkshire (10s. 6d.) by Mr. Harold Peake, who combines an intimate know- ledge of his county with an exceptional gift of exposition. He outlines the natural features, traces the history through the successive periods from the Stone Age to the Norman Conquest, and then gives an "archaeological gazetteer" in which, under each place-name, one has exact references to the various monuments and finds in that locality. The gazetteer, which must have involved infinite labour, and is thoroughly well done, is alone worth the price of the book. Berkshire's most famous antiquities are, of course, the White Horse—which the author would assign to the beginning of the Christian era because the figure resembles the debased horse on British coins that derive from the Macedonian stater—and Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic barrow to the west of the horse. Mr. Peake has taken special care in tracing the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way and the Roman roads. His illustrations are well chosen and he has a useful series of maps.
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