30 JANUARY 1909, Page 13

Ruined and Deserted Churches. By Lucy Elizabeth Beedham. (EWA Stock.

5s.)—Any one who looks through the pages of a clergy guide will sometimes see the entry, "Church in Ruins." This is the text which Miss Beedham takes and preaches on. It is a melancholy story, and the numbers given hero are more Om. sufficiently formidable. " Norfolk counts seventy-two churches either in ruins or totally destroyed, Buckinghamshire sixty. Essex te euty-four,"—these lists might be indefiniteli prolonged. It must be remembered that even now EngInne. has far more churches in proportion to area and population tear an,,' other country in the world. Still, it is well to be reminded of misdoing and neglect, and Miss Beedham has done good. service in this unpretending but attractive little volume.