At the thirteenth centenary of the Norwich diocese it is
appropriate that, with the help of the "Friends of the Cathedral Church of Norwich," a patient and well-equipped scholar should have begun to publish the results of his study of the Norwich archives, next to Westminster the most com- plete of their kind. Dr. H. W. Saunders' Introduction to the Obidientiary and Manor Rolls of Norwich Cathedral Priory (Norwich : Jarrold, 105. 6d.) will urprise even the expert in economic history by its mass of detail and by the Editor's thoroughness. He is as much at hone in these bundles of mediteval parchments as an accountant in a company's books. He can reconstruct not merely a general balance-sheet for the great Priory with its tithes and rents, its manors, mills, woods a-id fisheries, but also the accounts of the several departments --cellarer, sacrist, almoner, and so on—and show their defects. Incidentally, he throws light on other topics. The Priory was well managed and always solvent : it gave a tenth of its income to the poor and supported scholars at Oxford ; its monks were apparently immune to the Black Death ; their numbers varied between fifty and sixty till after 1460, and then gradually fell away. Dr. Saunders deserves the highest praise for a remarkable book. It is good to know that five other volumes are in progress, dealing fully with the depart- ments of the great institution whose Cathedral church is one of our noblest monuments.
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