Old Days of Eton Parish. By the Rev. John Shepherd.
(Spottis- woode and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Shephard gives us here the benefit of not a little research, carried on, we suppose, during his forty-two years of residence at Eton, first as Conduct of the College and afterwards as vicar of the parish. Eton, very probably the Eyot-town, soon became a place of note. The great waterway of the Thames was of an importance which we can hardly realise,—witness the curious way in which even distant parishes had a bit of frontage on the stream, The fisheries, too, were of a value that it is not easy to appreciate now when a fresh- water fish is a positive rarity in the market, Anyhow, it was, of course, populous enough to have a bridge at a very early time, Baldwin's Bridge is mentioned in 1274 as a well-known boundary. Mr. Shephard has much that is interesting to tell us of what we may call pre-Collego days. The foundation was begun in 1422, but circumstances prevented a very rapid development of the Founder's Island. When the Yorkists triumphed there was some danger that the whole work would be undone. Happily the danger passed. In the next great epoch of changes, Henry VIII.'s reign, the foundation was not seriously threatened. It is not, however, mainly about the College that Mr. Shephard writes. This has its own historians, He has collected a great number of interesting dotails about the town and its history, ecclesiastical and civil, worthily discharging a duty which is, we are glad to see, very *widely recognised.
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