Scottish _History by Contemporary Writers. " James IV., 1488-1513." Arranged and
edited by G. Gregory Smith. (D. Nutt.)—The work done for English history is now being extended to the annalists of the Northern Kingdom. We have the actual narrative of con- temporaries, made available for ordinary readers by the modernisa- tion of their language. Among the documents published is a de- scription of a sea-fight between Stephen Bull, whom Henry "VII. sent to punish Sir Andrew Wood, and the famous Scotch rover; a. love-letter from Perkin Warbeck to Katherine Gordon ; a decree establishing compulsory education for the children of all Barons and freeholders (for the labouring class it was never thought of ; hence the absurdity of the contention that our University endow- ments were intended for the poor) ; a description of a Border raid, given by Lord Dacre in a letter to Henry VIII.; and, most important of all, accounts of Flodden Field. (The story of what befell the King's body is curious, and highly discreditable to this country.) A pleasing contrast to the tone of many of the documents is to. be found in the extracts from John Major's "De Gestis Scotorum."
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