Mania Cornubiw. By W. C. Borlase. (Longraans.)—Mr. Borlase describes his
work as "a descriptive essay illustrative of the Sepulchres and Funeral Customs of the early inhabitants of the County of Cornwall." It is a complete, in fact, we should imagine, an exhaustive treatise. Mr. Borlase has visited not only all the remains of importance, bat, it might be said, all the remains of whatever kind having a bearing on his subject, that exist in Cornwall. And he has also searched the records of the past, collecting the notices,—alas ! too scanty, and even more vague and unsatisfactory than scanty, —of monuments that have perished from violence or decay. So close a study has of course led Mr. Borlase to form definite conclusions, which sometimes do not agree with popu- lar views. He does not believe, for instance, that the remains found in sepulchres indicate any idea of providing for the supposed wants of the deceased in a future life. It is satisfactory, again, to see that no evidence is forthcoming of the practice of massacring slaves at the funeral rites. We wish that Mr. Borlase would gather up in some concrete shape, not a tale but a continuous description, the conclusions which he has formed about the life of these old Cornish people.
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