THE ENGLISH HERITAGE By Rex Weldon Finn
Mr. Finn is very scornful in his comments on the ordinary text-book or guide-book, but it may be doubted whether his own sketch of English history (Heinemann, 7s. 6d.) serves any useful purpose. " Our concern," he says at the end, " has been with what has come down to us from the past, . . . what has been presented is not so much history as the background of canvas on which history has been painted." But while this aim is more or less attained in the early chapters on the " legacy " of the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Danes, it is half forgotten in the later pages in which the history of English society is summarised. The author had promised to stop at the eighteenth century, but he forgot his promise on page 236 when he wound up a chapter on Puritanism by an impassioned outburst on the late abdi- cation as an enforced " exile " and a " colossal blunder," and then partly withdrew his adverse comment in a footnote. Mr. Finn gives a list of many good books to read, but his own pages sadly need revision. The late Mr. Crump's exposure of the legend about the " Pilgrims' Way " has escaped him. Columbus's predecessors did not believe that the world was flat (p. 185). The note on mediaeval military service (p. 138) is highly debatable. The sixteen photo- graphic illustrations are attractive.
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