Oxford : its Buildings and Gardens. By Ralph Durand. With
32 Drawings by William A Wildman. (Grant Richards. 21s. net.) —Mr. Durand has given us here an eminently readable book. It is largely historical, though of course it is the bypaths of history that the author treads. As he goes the round of the Colleges and the University buildings, he finds some picturesque tradition or custom, just as his illustrator finds some convenient subject for his pencil. Of course be must be taken now and then cum grano. The statutes, for instance, have some obsolete provisions, but not, we think, a prohibition against purchasing food from towns- people. All this chapter on " Proctors" seems to be in a vein of exaggeration. So too is the remark that Worcester College "until recent years could only be reached from the town by narrow lanes." Beaumont Street is not a narrow lane, and it has been in existence for more than a few years.—We have received an admirably effective representation of The College of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford (Ryman and Co., Oxford). It has been executed in the bird's-eye fashion by Mr. Edmund Hort New.
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