Simon de Montfort and the Battle of Evesham. By Herbert
New. (Simpkin and Marshall.)---"It may be useful," says Mr. New, by way of preface, "for those who visit or inhabit the town of Evesham, to describe briefly the person, and the event which give so much interest to a place otherwise remarkable only, in common with other places on the Avon or the Severn, and in the fertile vale of their confluence, for ancient monastic remains and traditions, for agricultural wealth, and for beautiful midland scenery." In accordance with this purpose, Mr. New gives his readers an excellent sketch of the constitutional work of the great Earl of Leicester. Sprung of a race unlikely, it would seem, to produce a champion of liberty, he did more, perhaps, than any one other person in the course of our history to build up the great fabric of English freedom. It is curious enough that the great prince by whom he was overthrown was a great workman in the same direction, -but it is tolerably certain that Edward I. would not have been what he was to this country had it not been for Simon de Montfort. A certain suspicion involuntarily attaches itself to the men whom monastic chroniclers honour with especial praise. De Montfort- had probably reflected on him some of the transcendent glory which in the eyes of thirteenth-century ecclesiastics belonged to the author of the Albigensian massacres, but he had other and better claims to honour,—chiefly,' he was " the Key of England who locked out the Aliens from the State," for in their hatred of aliens all Englishmen, whether they wore the cowl or no, were fairly unanimous. All this is lucidly and power- fully brought out in Mr. New's sketch. He adds a clear account of the engagement which brought De Montfort's career and life to a close, illustrating it with an excellent plan of the field of battle.
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