WELLS AND GLASTONBURY.
Wells and Glastonbury. By Thomas Scott Holmes. (Methuen and Co. 4s. 6d. .net.) —The three chief lines of history in this volume, one of the "Ancient Cities" Series, are the Cathedral of Wells, with which is connected the story of the rival Bath, the Abbey of Glastonbury, and the civic development of the two towns or citiea. Wells possessed a church from early times ; in 909 this was raised to the rank of a Cathedral. What was done to accommo- date the building to this dignity we do not know. In the twelfth century a Cathedral was dedicated, indicating that it was largely now. Nothing of this building remains. The earliest parts of the present structure are some twenty years later. The story of its growth to the splendid building of to-day is highly interesting. Interesting, also, but less pleasing to read, is the narrative of the long struggle between the Bishop and the townsmen. In the later Middle Ages this assumed a violent form. The Bishop obtained leave to crenellate his palace in the fourteenth century. Another painful business, at least in its later stages, is the story of the Abbey. It was always a favourable specimen of the monastic Houses, and the hard treatment which it met with has I. very ungracious look. The volume is full of noteworthy matter.
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