28 APRIL 1894, Page 12

Handbook for Oxfordshire. (John Murray.)—It is singular that we should

have had to wait till now for a separate hand- book for Oxfordshire. Its appearance in the Redeker form as a real pocket hand-book is, no doubt, a tribute to the increasing popularity of the River Thames and the University of Oxford. We are not sure that the treatment of the colleges at Oxford (which, naturally enough, occupy about a quarter of the whole volume) according to date, instead of topographically, is the right way to deal with them for a guide-book. Even those who think they know their Oxford well, may learn a good deal from the hand-book. The historical parts are well done, on the whole. But it does not appear why the church of Dorchester, which was degraded from a Cathedral Church of Secular Canons into a Priory of Canons Regular, should be called an abbey.