THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE
CURRENT LITERATURE •
Now that the University of London Institute of Historical Research is responsible for the Victoria County History, with Mr. L. F. Salzmann as editor, the great work is progressing more rapidly. The first volume of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely (Oxford University Press, 63s.)- is largely concerned with natural history ; Dr. H. Godwin's account of the botanical features of the primitive Wicken Fen is of special interest. Dr. Cyril Fox's classic study of the archaeology of the Cambridge region is of course the basis of the excellent chapters on " Early Man " by Dr. Grahame Clark and on " Anglo- Saxon Remains " by Mr. T. C. Lethbridge. The Roman chapter is deferred, but it is made clear that the Romans had done much, to reclaim the fens which under Saxon rule reverted to their native wildness for centuries. For Domesday students the volume is of exceptional importance. Dr. Salzmann discusses in detail the Cambridgeshire Domesday and the two other versions of the original returns that have been preserved by chance, and Miss Otway-Ruthven has translated and indexed both the Domesday and the longer of the other surveys which was probably made for the sheriff. It is instructive to compare them and to see how Domesday was compiled.
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