Readings in English Social History from Contemporary Literature. Edited by
R. B. Morgan. 2 vols. (Cambridge University Press. 4s. net each.)—This attractive little book is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the early ages up to 1272, and the second with the period from 1272 to 1485. The readings are short and are selected from translations of the chronicles, laws, documents, and a few poems like Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales. They begin, of course, with Caesar and Tacitus, and go on to Bede and Asser's life of Alfred. In the second volume there is a wider choice, and the editor has found some interesting things in Rymer's severe pages and in the London records as well as in the Paston Letters. The book is appropriately illustrated, and should form an attractive companion to the ordinary school history. The editor should not have included Allen's and Iliorpe's explanations of the Anglo-Saxon terms, " book-land " and " folk-land," which have long been superseded by Professor Vinogradoff's alternative view. " Folk-land " was certainly not " the property of the community."
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