THE ETON COLLEGE REGISTER, 1698-1752. Edited by Richard Austen-Leigh. (Eton
: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne and Co. 21s. net.)—This result of laborious and unlimited research will appeal to a far wider public than any directly connected with Eton to-day, since the thousands of names and biographical notes (with the sources of information carefully noted so as to help other researchers) will be a mine of information for pedigree-hunters, antiquarians of all kinds, and many others. We congratulate Mr. Austen-Leigh on completing a much larger and more difficult task than his earlier volume dealing with the years 1753-90. The only work we know of that can fitly be compared with it is the even greater one (and one often laid under contribution by Mr. Austen-Leigh), the Alumni Cantabrigienses. The Register shows how consistently democratic Eton has been. There are innumerable noble names here, and also those of the sons of every kind of professional man, shopkeeper, and tradesman. It was an Imperial centre, too, to which boys came from the American Colonies and the West Indies. The Introduction gives results of research into the conditions of the boys' lives, about the Provosts and Masters, and also those important people, the Dames.
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