The Fifth Book of Pilgrimages to Old Houses. By Fletcher
Moss. (The Author, Old Parsonage, Didsbury. 21s. net.)—Mr. Moss is not wholly at peace with the world. The book-trade does not like that a writer should publish for himself, and it has contrived to shut out his books from all London libraries except the British Museum, which "has some, not all, of them,"—surely it ought to have all if Mr. Moss is under the same law as his fellow-country- men. Then he has a complaint against the same fellow-country- men. He has for a frontispiece the picture of a monastic ruin with, under the inscription, "The House of God." That is a long story to tell; but some of the Religious Houses were very far from being houses of religion. -Mr. Moss might read in the Monastieon what Cardinal Morton found at St. Albans. However, the reader may find plenty to enjoy in this handsome volume. First comes the description of the home of the Plowdens of Plowden. Then, along with others, we have Worsley Hall, where the Duke of Bridgewater, with the help of James Brindley, matured his great scheme of inland navigation ; Clayton Nall, associated with the Byrons and the Chathams ; Tatton Old Hall, which was, in a way, a discovery of our author's ; Lanercost, Naworth Castle, Lee Hall, Ellesmere, Crewe Hall, and the Roman Wall. Was this last au "Old House " ? Certainly, Mr. Moss answers, for hundreds of thousands of men lived in it from first to last. (It is scarcely correct to say that a certain legion "called itself the Victorious." The title Vietris was official, and given by authority. It was- borne by the Sixth Legion—that here mentioned—and the Twentieth, in the latter case with the addition of Va/eria.) Mr. Moss's volume. is illustrated by a great number of admirable photographs.
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