ANCIENT MONUMENTS: SOUTHERN ENGLAND By W. Ormsby - Gore For anyone who,
knows Wiltshire the frontispiece of Mr. Ormsby-Gore's second volume of the Illustrated Regional Guide to Ancient Monuments, dealing with Southern England (H.M. Stationery Office, Is.), will be a sufficient recommenda- tion for the book as a whole. A view of the West Kennett Avenue at Avebury, in its reconstructed state, will rejoice the hearts of all admirers of megaliths or downi (eind_tbe two cannot be widely separated), and, eves- though the author later has to admit that the Avebury circles are not directly controlled by- the Office of Works, this photograph puts us in a mood to enjoy what .followt.. Aenially, what -fokows is good. We may regret the barbed wire at Stonehenge (though at night it is easily scalable and scarcely visible), but we must agree that the reconstruction there has been valuable. The photographs of Dover Castle make us realise its great architectural qualities, and the aerial view of Restonnel Castle is romantic enough to ,make any reader want to go there at once. The fact that, in the illustration, Nunney Castle looks four times as big and therefore four times as impressive as in real life gives one pause ; but the Queen's House at Greenwich, the beauty of which does not depend on scale, restores one's confidence. Finally, it should be said that the book contains a mass of useful information about each individual monument which is under the control of the Office of Works : nearest railway station, hours and cost of admission and a brief historical survey.
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