Students of economic history will be grateful to Sir Henry
C. M. Lambert for producing, after some twenty years, a second volume of his History of Banstead in Surrey (Oxford University Press, 16s.). Here, again, he prints in full some early documents, and especially the Court rolls, for selected years between 1393 and 1581. We are glad to see that the complete rolls are given, and that the author has not wasted time and money in imitating the contractions used by the old scribes, which students do not want. His commentary on the documents is learned and useful ; the manorial system, if it was a system, can only be understood by analysis and com- parison of as many Court rolls, extents and rentals as possible, and this history of Banstead gives some excellent specimens. The notes on various houses and farms in the parish show much local research. Incidentally the author gives two pho- tograrlis of a once picturesque pond with trees which the Ministry of Transport has lately obliterated by a new motor road—one more example of that departmental zeal which is transforming rural England into one vast Brooldands.
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