12 JULY 1902, Page 24

Westminster. By Sir W. Besant and G. E. Mitton. (A.

and C. Black. is. 6d. net.)—This is a very pleasing little book, of the same series (" Fascination of London ") to which the " Chelsea " noticed lately in these columns belongs. There are two Westminsters, a Parliamentary and an historical ; but surely the city that takes in from St. George's, Hanover Square, to St. Clement Danes is not "the city which claims to be older even than London," as the first paragraph in this volume would seem to imply. Anyhow, the Westminster of this volume is the region included by the parishes of St. Margaret and St. John, not very extensive, but furnishing an ample subject matter. One or two little corrections may be made. It is said of Westminster Hall that "in the eighteenth century the Courts of Justice (Chancery and King's Bench) were held here." They were held (though not the Chancery Courts) far on into the nineteenth,—i.e., in rooms standing outside of the Hall. There is a curious misprint of 1851 for 1651 in speaking of the Scottish prisoners taken at Worcester.