The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew. By George Worley. (G.
Bell and Sons. Is. 6d. net.)—St. Bartholomew the Great, to give the church its popular name, is as interesting a study in architecture as any that can be found in London, and Mr. Worley has done well in giving us this instructive little book about it. On the one hand, the Norman and Early English periods are repro-, seated by some admirable work. On the other, the brick tower built in 1628 shows to what a depth English taste once descended. The story of the building is a curious mixture of light and darkness. We sae the devotion of the first founder, Rahere ; the indifference and greed of post-Reformation times, when the whole place narrowly escaped destruction ; and, finally, the zeal with which within our own times the church has been brought back to something like its original beauty. One piece of good fortune there has been,—namely, that the restoration has been, on the whole, done with good judgment. A visit to this beautiful survival of the past will well repay the time, and the visitor cannot do better than take this handy little volume with him.
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