A History of Gothic Art in England. By E. S.
Prior. (G. Bell and Sons. 31s. Cd.)—The author contends strongly for the acknowledgment of the independence of English Gothic, and controverts the theories of its French origin. In the first chapter of the book there is an eloquent attack upon modern restoration ; the following words are so true that they deserve quotation :—" The tinsel of nineteenth-century ecclesiology must be thrust aside, before we can get the real quality of mediteval arr. Yet by most people these Neo-Gothic forgeries are taken as representative, and it is small wonder that, as they have multiplied, the credit of the real inspiration has declined. In the hubbub of false assertion the genuine voice has, in fact, been
drowned genuine work has been continually effaced, and the real art smoothed away and doctored to match the false." In these days of handbooks on the arts it is good to find a work in which the author has a distinct point of view of his own which is carried out into the ramifications of the subject. Some of the most interesting portions of the book are those which treat of the effects of the mason's necessities upon the archi- tectural style.
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