The Headsman of Whitehall. By Philip Sidney. (G. A. Morton,
Edinburgh. 2s. 6d. net.)—Much of this book seems to us to be irrelevant. The question of the identity of the Headsman might have been treated without giving a dozen pages or more to other "historical riddles," to an account of the death-warrant, and of Cromwell's unseemly behaviour ; a catalogue of the regicides ; an account of the King's manners and morals—not altogether flatter- ing—and a description of his last hours. About the actual subject of the book little is, or, indeed, can be, said. The execu- tioner was either Colonel George Joyce or Richard Brandon, son and assistant of the public executioner of the time. Richard Brandon died in the following June, and a confession was pub- lished in which he acknowledged the deed to be his. Whether this was genuine is another question. The book is certainly "made," but there is an excuse for it, and it is as certainly interesting.
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