We have received the first volumes of three examples of
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England," Edited by William Page, F.S.A. (A. Constable and Co., .41 lls. 6d. net per vol.) The three are Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, so that the South-West of England has at last the prospect of being adequately treated. Up to this thne the three counties have suffered from neglect or misfortune. Cornwall has received attention from antiquaries and archaeologists, who have found in it an exceptionally rich field, but the "history of the county has been somewhat neglected." Devonshire can "scarcely be said to possess a county history according to the modern interpretation of that title." Here there has been an element of bad luck. Sir William Pole, who died in 1635, made a large collection of documents, but a great portion perished iu the Civil War. Other efforts in the same direction have been either neglected or left incomplete. Lastly, the only work that claims to be a full history of Somerset appeared more than a century ago, long before the modern art of referring to original sources had been established. Hera, too, there has been some bad fortuue. W. Phelps's "History and Antiquities of Somerset- shire" (1835) did not get beyond the seventh number. Three other counties have now got as far as the second volume. They are Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Northampton. We regret to see that, with regard to the second of these, Mr. Walter Rye has been com- pelled by failure of eyesight to resign the task of supervision which he had undertaken. A further disappointment is that Dr. Jessopp is not able to give all the help which he had expected to be able to render. One subject treated in all three volumes is the history of the religious houses in each county. The number of these foundations when they are thus aggregated is certainly impressive. In Lincolnshire there were a hundred and twenty- six, in Norfolk a hundred and nineteen, in Northampton forty- nine. Worked out with the acreage of the various counties, the results are not unlike, Norfolk coming first, as we might expect, and Northampton and. Lincoln being very nearly the same. The country was overburdened with them. The principles and practice of the " Victoria County History" are now so well established and so admirably carried out that it is scarcely necessary to do more than chronicle the appearance of the volumes. Each county has an "Advisory Council." and in each the separate sections of natural history in its various provinces, archaeology, general history, &c., are put into the hands of experts, the whole passing under the observation of a general editor. We may be able to return to the series, which has, indeed, been frequently noticed more or less fully in the Spectator.
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