The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Vol. II.,
Edited by H. E. Malden, M.A. (A. Constable and Co., sold in sets, 318..6d. per vol. net), belongs to the series which is intended to include all the English counties. There is no need to examine the present instalment in detail. It will suffice to give the names of the writers responsible for the various portions. The editor, whose reputation as an archaeologist is well assured and well deserved, contributes the " Ecclesiastical" and the " Military History," as also the first instalment of the " Topography," dealing with Farnham Hundred. (The details about the division of the parishes are curious. Each had its share of the better soil, just as the parishes in Berke and Oxon have, if possible, a frontage to the Thames.) The Rev. Dr. Cox tells about the Religions Houses, some twenty in number, of which the Abbey of Bermondsey was, perhaps, the most famous. Mr. A. F. Leach deals with the History of Schools in an article full of characteristic learning. The "Industries" are described by Mr. Montague S. Giuseppi. Ecclesiastical Architecture is treated by Mr. B. Johnston, and Domestic by Mr. R. Nevin, while various kinds of sport are distributed among as many as twelve writers. The whole is an admirable example of scientific history. That we are not able to review the book more fully is due not to any want of appreciation of its merits, but solely to the fact that it is one of many volumes, and that if each volume in the " Victoria County Histories" were to be reviewed at length, we should be devoting too great a portion of our space to county history.
Previous page
