Lord Balfour's home near Edinburgh has found a very com-
petent historian in the parish minister, the Rev. Marshall B. Lang. The Seven Ages of an East Lothian Parish, being the Story of Whittingehame (Edinburgh : Grant, 10s. 6d.), is a' sound and scholarly piece of work. The isolated hill known as Traprain Law was fortified in prehistoric times. In the fifth century sea-rovers buried there a hoard of silver, looted perhaps from a Gaulish monastery. Traces of an early church remain. In the Covenanting days Whittingehame remained placid, as it did at the Secession of 1843. The estate was held by Douglases, Setons, and Hays before it was purchased by Lord Balfour's grandfather in 1817 and greatly improved. The new owner built the stately mansion and enlarged what Scotsmen call the policies—or park. Mr. Lang is as a rule a careful writer, but he forgets, in telling a local legend, that Cromwell won the battle of Dunbar, and therefore did not need to look for " a practical line of retreat " ; that was a task for his defeated rival Leslie.
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