In the series of the "Victoria County Histories" (A. Constable
and Co., £1 lls. 66. net per vol.) we have Lancashire, Vol. III., and Oxfordshire, Vol. II. The Lancashire volume has reached the point which was, it may be said, the beginning of the "county history" as it was formerly conceived. It is devoted, i.e., to the description, in which details of tenure of property and genealogy occupy a prominent place, of tho parishes, &c., of the county. The Hundred of West Derby is partly dealt • with, the parishes of Liverpool, Wigan, and Winwick being left over for another volume. The Oxfordshire volume contains ecclesiastical history, religious houses—these numbered fifty—social and economic industry, industries, agriculture, ancient earthworks, and sport. Under the head of " Industries " we have an account of the Oxford Press. Up to 1600 the publications numbered 148; in the seventeenth century 2,569 works were published ; in the eighteenth 2,473—a curiously significant decrease, marking the stagnant time—in the nineteenth, 14,465. Under the head of 'Parchment and Paper Making" we find that the Wolvercote paper mill was established in 1606; it still flourishes. It now belongs to the Press. That at Sandford belongs to the University. Other mills, as at Eynsham, have been devoted to other purposes.
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