Two books about London may be mentioned together. London Street
Names, by F. H. Habben, B.A. (T. Fisher Unwin), is a careful collection of notes about London streets. These notes are conveniently arranged in alphabetical order. Of course as one looks through the book omissions suggest themselves. The range, too, of Mr. Habben's peregrinations is comparatively small. We must take leave to question the etymological propriety of in- cluding "canon " among the " derivations from the Latin canna, a reed or cane." The word is Greek as well as Latin, and the Greek use is much the earlier of the two. It is a matter of relationship, not descent. The London Burial Grounds, by Mrs. Basil Holmes (same publisher), has something of an official character about it. The author drew up a table of burial grounds which appeared in Rocque's Plan of London (1712 45), and no longer existed, for the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. This table was published in 1882. Since that time Mrs. Holmes has been working in the same field. In 1894 the London County Council resolved to have a catalogue of all the burial grounds within its dominions, and made application to our author for help. Her answer was to offer to under- take the work. This book gives the substance of her dis- coveries. It is melancholy reading in many places, though it is only right to acknowledge that the public conscience is far more sensitive nowadays than it was half a century or even a quarter of a century ago. There are some really terrible stories, that, for instance, about Enon Chapel, Clement's Lane. The chapel was the speculation of a Dissenting minister, and was really started, not for preaching the Gospel, but for burial of tho dead at a rate cheap, indeed, but highly profitable to the speculator. The details are almost incredible. Twenty thousand coffins were stowed away, for a time, in a space 69 ft. by 29 ft. with a depth of 6 ft. " For a time," we say, because the older coffins were burnt in the minister's house. He got his fuel for nothing ! It would be interesting to know something more about the ingenious Mr. Howse who started and carried on this speculation.
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