Brampton in the Olden Times. By the Rev. H. Whitehead.
(James Lewis, Selkirk. 5s. net.)—The late Mr. Whitehead, who was vicar of Brampton, Cumberland, during the period 1874-84, not only set a good example for those administering parishes of historical interest, but showed no how to make this interest communicable to a workaday world. The papers in this volume were delivered as lectures or written as parish magazine articles, and so were not caviare to the multitude, but meant to be understood by any parishioner. The opening paper, "A Seventeenth-Century Parish Clerk," is a clever and readable article on that once most necessary official, in this case a zealous and conscientious man who did his duty to the register. Mr. Whitehead has made this man, about whom only certain bare facts are known, a very life- like individual, by means of careful deductions and a considerable insight into human nature. The most interesting personality connected with Brampton, however, was " Belted Will," who inherited the barony of Gilaland from one of the Deere heiresses, and, coming into possession after a protracted struggle, set about reducing the place to order. The story of this very able administrator is a capital example of Mr. Whitehead's broad and sympathetic temper of mind, and of his ability to do justice to men and matters. Few men of his class carried out more worthily the motto noblesse oblige than the future lord of Gilsland. Nor has the author of these papers forgotten the story of humbler parishioners, and he has something to say about their surnames and their origin, and their connexion with such events as the march of the Highlanders in the Forty-five."
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