OLD SHROPSHIRE HOUSES.
Shropshire Houses, Past and Present. Illustrated from Draw- ings by Stanley Leighton, M.P., F.S.A., with Descriptive Letter- press by the artist. (George Bell and Sons. 21s.)—This book, which has been edited by the widow of the writer, is a series of archaeological and genealogical notes on a number of Shropshire houses. In most cases Mr. Leighton has contented himself with bare dates and facts, but in the account of Court of Hill, belonging to Captain Hill Lowe, there is an extract from a diary written by a lady who stayed in the house in 1771 which will amuse our readers. After describing the grandeurs of the place and the number of servants—" I've seen eight maids," she exclaims—she goes on 1—" The fashion here is to ride double. How terribly vulgar I've thought this ! but what will not fashion render genteel! As to carriages, they make nothing of going a dozen miles to dinner, though own to being bruised to death and quite deshabillered' by the jolts they receive."
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