The Royal Manor of Richmond. By Mrs. Arthur G. Bell.
(G. Bell and Sons. 7s. 6d. net.)—There is great historical interest about Richmond, but the archaeological and antiquarian element is not much in evidence. Whether there are manorial records we know not, but they do not appear in these pages. On the other hand, Mrs. Arthur Bell has taken considerable pains with the personal history of the place. In this respect few places are more rich in associations. •Richmond, though it must yield to Hampstead, Chelsea, 'and other suburbs that could be named for its literary associations, surpasses all in the list of Royal and noble personages who have had to do with it. One extra- ordinary mistake Mrs. Bell makes in her history. "Mary, who was later to drive her brother from the throne," is mentioned first among the three daughters of Charles I. Mary, the daughter of James II., is, of course, meant. But even of her it is strange to say that she "drove her brother from the throne." Her brother was a child when she died ; and even her father was scarcely "driven from his throne" by her. She may have been wrong in accepting the throne he left vacant by his flight ; but it is pretty certain that her refusal would have done nothing to bring him back. Richmond is fortunate in having registers as old as 1583, though this was forty-five years after Thomas Cromwell's injunction (p. 95). Few places can go back so far.
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