Shorter Notices
Timber Building in England from Early e, Times to the end of the 17th Century. By Fred H. Crossley. (Batsford. 3os.) THIS is a long account, profusely illustrated, of the many kinds of buildings in England, which were wholly or partly composed of wood. It opens with a chapter on the oak and the value of timber to our ancestors, illustrated by excerpts from various mediaeval chronicles. The rest of the book is divided into fwo main parts—religious and secular buildings. The ordinary reader will be amazed at the number of important buildings—castles, great halls, churches, spires, bell-towers, gate-houses, vicarages and private houses—which it was customary to build in wood at one time ; and, indeed, this is essentially a book for the ordinary reader, since the specialist will find each sub- ject dealt with more profoundly elsewhere.
For a book intended for pleasant reading the style is disappointing. It is frequently involved, and sometimes lacks grammatical sequence. Enthusiasm for the antique leads the author to make disparaging remarks about the craftsmen of today. Forgetting that all that was not well built in the past has of its nature perished, he is apt to com- pare the handsome houses of the sixteenth- century rich with the modern houses of the poor—houses which do at least provide shelter of a higher standard than was formerly given to that class. The illustra- tions will, however, give pleasure and
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