SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Noiies in this column does not necusarai prietnis stout:mit rsois v.) Antwerp, 1177-1559. By Jervis Wegg. (Methuen and Co. 21s. net.) —Close connexions have existed between England and Antwerp from time immemoriaL In October, 1914, they came closer than ever before, and they are likely to remain intimate. Mr. Wegg's book has, therefore, a special interest besides the very considerable intrinsic value that the author probably claimed for it when he began to collect material, no doubt long before the war. His introduction gives a history and de- scription of the town as it arose, and the life there from early days until the death of Charles the Bold upon the field of Nancy in 1477. Tho more detailed history begins with Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian, and it carries us down to the Treaty of Cat esu Cambreois, which left Philip II. of Spain in a position to attempt seriously the repression of Protestantism in the Low Countries. But the story of the notables, the wars and other events in these years of the Reformation and Renaissance can be found in any history-book. Here they at., the thread upon which is hung an exhaustive account of the religious, artistic, civic, social, and commercial life of the citizens, the best form of any history of a city. The relations with England under the Tudors offer a most interesting study. Mr. Wegg's particular predilections are probably for the art of the country and the archaeology of the city, but there is a mass of information upon other subjects. The book is generously illustrated with reproductions of old plans of the town, with its early fortifications, and of pictures and local views.
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