25 APRIL 1914, Page 9

THE PORT BOORS OF SOUTHAMPTON.

The Port Books of Southampton, 1427-1430. Transcribed and Edited by Paul Studer. (Southampton Cox and Sharland. 15s. 9d. net.)—The Southampton Record Society is now in its eighth year of existence, and has issued fifteen volumes of great local and general interest. In the latest of these Professor Studer—who has recently been translated from Hartley University College, at Southampton, to the Taylorian Chair at Oxford—adds to the good work which he has already done for the Society by making a fresh incursion into the Muniment Room of the Corporation. He has thus brought to light a manuscript volume from the band of Robert Florys, who was Water-Bailiff or Receiver of Petty Customs at Southampton when the old port was in the zenith of its

long-forgotten glory. No less than thirteen large merchant vessels belonged to the port in the days of Robert Florys, besides sixteen smaller ships—not to speak of others which are not mentioned by Florys, but which Professor Studer shows good reason for believing in. The accounts now published throw much light on English trade and social needs in the days of Joan of Arc.