An Account of Some of the Families Bearing the Name
of Heath- cote, which have Descended out of the County of Darby. By Evelyn D. Heathcote, M.A. (Warren and Sons, Winchester.)— This very handsome volume does great credit to its publishers. Print, binding, illustrations, all are excellent. And the book itself is well worth the pains that have been bestowed upon it. Such books are, in fact, the skeleton of history, and it is a pity there are not a great many more of them. Mr. Heathcote has taken immense trouble in searching out the records of every branch of the fine old family to which he belongs. He has made out fourteen Heathcote pedigrees, and has told the story of each of these branches with abundant illustration of portraits, coats of arms, sketches of old houses, and anecdotes collected from public and private sources. To himself, of course, and probably to many other people, the most interesting record in the book is that of the Heathcotes of Huraley, and there is no finer or better face among the portraits than that of Sir William Heathcote, his father, painted by Richmond in 1870. But we have not space even to mention the many points where the story of the Heath- cote family touches on the wider ways of English biography and history. It is a worthy chronicle of a fine race. There are many younger sons of studious taste who might well employ them• selves after Mr. Evelyn Heatheote'a example.
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