The History awl Antiquities of the Parish of Wimbledon, Surrey.
By W. A. Bartlett, M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford, Senior Curate of Wimbledon. (Simpkiu, Marshall, and Co.)—A clergyman can, we think, scarcely occupy his leisure better than in the composition of a history of his parish, and the author is very well qualified for such a task. He writes in a clear, unpretending style, and has the very great merit of always keeping the subject of his book before him. For in- stance, in the interesting notices of the persons who have from time to time been lords of the manor, rectors of the parish, or residents in it, he does not weary us with elaborate histories of Charles L and his Queen, of Rockingham, Fox, Burdett, and the first Duchess of Marl- borough. These persons belong to English, not local history. On the other hand local celebrities, like John de Sandal, Adam Mnrimoth, Sir Edward Betenson, and Vulture Hopkins, people who made a noise in their day and are now forgotten, are here restored, if not to national, at all events to local memory. For the rest there does not appear to be any- thing very remarkable or interesting about the parish or its history. Lord Spencer's ill-advised attempt to inclose the common is of course passed over, with the simple remark that his Lordship's motives were unques- tionably good. But it was obviously proper to say as little as possible about a mere temporary squabble in a work which is intended to have, and deserves to have, a permanent position on all Wimbledon book- shelves. The getting-up and illustrations are all that could be desired, and yet not unnecessarily costly. In fact it is a work of a sort which, above all others, deserves commendation from a critic, for it attains in a thoroughly scholarlike way a very useful object, and yet from the nature of the subject and treatment is likely to be altogether overlooked in an age which reads to kill time, and finds time most easily killed by mere flashy and superficial writing.
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