Whether as charming picture-books or as exhaustive records, the volumes
issued by the Royal -Commission on Historical Monuments are incomparable. The new volume on Hereford- shire—South-West (H.M. Stationery Office, 30s.) seems even better than usual, because many of the buildings and acces- sories are little known even to those who know Hereford well, and have seen Hohne Lacy, Goodrich, and Ewyas Harold. The photographs of the great church at Madley, of the fifteenth- century- fortified manor-house of Treago, or of some of the fourteen early Stuart chairs in Dulas church—to name only three wonderful items out of many—will send many readers to this part of the Welsh Marches. The famous cathedral, with its twelfth-century Bishop's palace and Hereford's many old houses are described very fully. The Normans had to build for defence in this part of a troubled frontier against the Welsh, and this necessity is apparent in many of the older edifices, whether sacred or secular. Two hundred pages of plates, with innumerable plans and a large map, illustrate the book as fully and as beautifully as anyone could wish.
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