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THE BOOK OF THE WANDLE. By John Morrison Hobson. (Routledge. 10s. 6d. net.) " Twenty years ago," said Ruskin in The Crown of Wild Olive, " there was no lovelier piece of lowland scenery in South England . . . than that immediately bordering on the sources of the Wandel." Fifty years have gone since this high praise was given, and Dr. Hobson writes under the shadow of a beauty which is waning or has disappeared from the little Surrey river, and, indeed, we feel that this loving history, is partly written in the hope that future generations may be helped -to 'recapture something of the past The birthplace, genesis'arid decadence of the Wandle are dealt with, and the river's associations traced from earliest times to the year 1914, numerous references being made to industries, properties and buildings along its banks, the concluding chapters referring to the animal and plant life of the Basin. Dr. Hobson evi- 'deictly has derived great enjoyment from the district in which he has lived,- and his local history is an outcome of considerable research and observation, although his treatment of the subject is occasionally discursive and the construction of the book rather piecemeal; It is scarcely necessary, for example, to include m a history of the Wandle a description of the chaffinch and other common "Wets. One or two small misprints occur —"marjoram" for marjoram and " twablade " for twayblade, while to call lavender and peppermint " pot-herbs " is surely incorrect. The book, which is illustrated, 'is one over which the retired professional or business man of the district might ponder, and from it he might gain some understanding of the history that-helps to make the atmosphere of his neighbour- hood, an atmosphere perhaps almost unfelt in the more active years of his life.
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