England Under the Lancastrians. By Jessie H. Flemming. (Longmans. 12s.
6d. net).—This is a new volume in the useful series of " University of London Intermediate Source-Books," which owes its existence to the initiative of Professor Pollard.
Source-book " sounds as dull as " text-book," but these volumes are, in truth, extremely interesting. Miss Flemming has gone to printed and imprinted records, to the English and French chronicles, to the year-books, to the Paston and other letters and to the popular songs of the period from 1399 to 1464 and has made a most readable collection. The passages
are classified according to subject—political, constitutional, economic and social, and so forth—and arranged chronologically. The supposed predominance of the Commons in the so-called " Lancastrian experiment " is hardly borne out by the extract relating to Thomas Thorp, Speaker in 1453, whom the Lords had sent to gaol and declined to release at the humble petition of the Commons. Miss Flemming gives an essay on the sources and a good index.
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