Ludus Patronymicus. By R. S. Charnock, Ph.D. (Triibner.)—A book on
the "etymology of curious surnames" which displays considerable ingenuity and no little learning. The subject is too vast for any man to deal with thoroughly. He ought to know every language that has been spoken in Britain and in the countries from which our numberless immigrants have come. And he ought to be perfectly acquainted with British geography, not only that which appears in maps, but with what may be called "parish" geography. This is an obviously impossible attainment. The want of it might be partially supplied by monographs in local names. Meanwhile, Dr. Charnock's book is a useful contribution to philological science. Under the same head may be classed a Glossary of the Cotswold Dialects, by the late Rev. R. W. Huntley, M.A. (J. R. Smith), a work full of that local knowledge which cultivated men whom fortune, as it is said, "buries in the country" might properly spend their leisure in collecting.
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