THE ENGLISH ABBEY By F. H. Crossley The British Heritage
Series has put forth another branch and has covered new ground in The English Abbey (Batsford, 7s. 6d.). Both in subject and treatment this volume is at least worthy of its predecessors. The author, Mr. F. H. Crossley, is not concerned only with the architecture of such Abbeys as survive in England, but alio with the whole background which produced this architecture. Chapters are devoted to a description of the constitution of the abbeys under different Orders, to the life of the monks, to their relations with the outer- world, to the economy of monastic existence, to .their services in ,.the arts and-in learning, and to many other subjects connected with their existence. The book is packed with enough minute information to make it alive and convincing, but not so much as to make it heavy or pedantic. The description of life in the more austere-monasteries is a good apologia for -their existence and will convince the reader that not everyone, at any rate, entered the monasteries simply in order to lead an easy and sheltered life. The con- struction and arrangement of monasteries according to the needs of the various Orders is made admirably clear by a number of plans, so arranged that they can be conveniently studied at the same time as the text. There arc nearly 140 plates after photographs by the author, well taken and well reproduced and showing every type of monastic building. The only repulsive part of the book, its paper wrapper, is, happily, detachable.
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