English Cathedrals. By Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer. Illus- trated with
154 drawings by Joseph Pennell. (T. Fisher Unwin. 1892.)—The cathedrals illustrated are Canterbury, Peterborough, Durham, Salisbury, Lichfield, Lincoln, Ely, Wells, Winchester, Gloucester, York, and St. Paul's in London. Mr. Pennell's drawings have appeared in the course of the last five years in the Century magazine. They are an attempt at the difficult task of giving a clear account of architectural fact as well as of pic- turesque effect. Mr. Pennell is always skilful in expressing the architecture and in:taking advantage of picturesque material in its setting, but he is happiest where he can most freely subordinate the details of the building, or treat the building itself as part of a pictorial effect, as in the Thames-side scene, where the barges are the chief motive and St. Paul's dome a background detail. The drawings are partly reproduced by prwese, partly by engraving. Some of the engraving is very skilful, such as Gamm's rendering of pencil-lines. Mrs. Van Renssela w, who writes the letterpress, has studied the buildings and their literature, and writes intelli- gently and with a critical seise not very common in English books of the kind.
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