MEDIEVAL LONDON.
lifedireral London. By Canon Benham and Charles Welch. With Illustrations. (Seeley and Co. 7s.)—This is a fascinating book, and c nitains an astonishing amount of information in an easily digestible form. How the authors have contrived to do this without producing chronic congestion of the style we know not, for the subject is enormous and the materials are plentifuL Aided by sections of Antonio van den Wyngarde's drawings we can really forms )me idea of the appearance of London, which then covered but a comparatively narrow strip by the river. Of the actual street life a long acquaintance with contemporary documents may perhaps give one a series of more or less con- tinuous images. The Tower, Southwark, London Bridge; and the religious houses furnish some profoundly interesting para- graphs. London Bridge alone would have been the goal of one's pilgrimage in the fifteenth century. Doubtless it was a serious obstruction, and "making it" entailed considerable risk. Still, one does not hear so very much about this in Tudor times. It must have added much to the pleasure of boating above. One can- not imagine the Tudors rowing up and down in barges, as they did in the summer evenings, with the pronounced ebb and flow of the tide as obtains now. The coloured illustrations are very brilliant in effect, and they are necessary if we are to realise the pageantry of medieval life. Mediwval London is a neat and handsome volume, excellently printed ; it is easy to hold, it is not expensive, and it is well written.
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