THE HISTORY OF hITCHIN. By Reginald L. Hine. Vol. I.
(G. Allen and Unwin. 16s.)—Local historians seldom contrive to be both informing and readable. Mr. Hine's new work on Hitchin is a brilliant exception to the rule. He has collected a mass of most valuable details from the local and national records and other sources, and yet he never forgets that a history is meant to be read by ordinary people. We could wish that he had begun with a general acmmt of Hitchin, its geographical position, and the reasons 'Why important enough in early times to be coveted by Earl Harold and later by the Crown. But-what he has given is excellent. Successive chapters deal with the manor, the church, the Priory, the Biggin—a remnant of another religious house—the Civil War, the churchwardeiii, -the Poor Lew and the highways. Each chapter has been revised by seme well-known scholar, and each contains abundant illustrative material from the local records. The chapter on the roads, for example, shows very clearly how this branch of local administration was handled, or mishandled.,. The manor rolls,. Which. by the way Seebolun used to advantage, are made to throw light on life in mediaeval Hitchin. Every one who is seriously interested in English history, and not Merely in the Hertfordshire town, will find Mr. Hine's book uncommonly entertaining. It is well printed and illustrated.
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