Yet another good parish history has appeared in South Myninis,
by F. Brittain (Cambridge : Hefter, 10s. 6d.). The author is a Cambridge don, but he loves the quiet parish between Barnet and St. Albans, and has enlisted no less a person than Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to praise it in an introduction. The village was fortunately left on one side by Telford's new main road in 1826, and thus preserves much of its rural character. Wrotham Park, the chief mansion, was built by the Admiral Byng who was shot " to encourage the others," and still remains in his family. Thackeray's father was born in the parish. There still stands the mediaeval manor house of Wyllyotts, named after its fourteenth-century owner. Knightsland, another house, is possibly Elizabethan. The Battle of Barnet was fought within the old parish bounds, but South Mimms has no other great events in its records. Yet Mr. Brittain's story of his parish is none the less interesting, based as it is on local knowledge and local research. The illustrations arc good and there is a map.
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