The authors of The Complete Peerage, of which we have
received Volume VI (St. Catherine Press, £3 13s. 6d.) are to be congratulated on this carefully planned and interestingly written production. Outwardly this volume looks like an encyclopaedia, but inwardly it palpitates with " human interest." Opening it at random at the Viscountcy of Ilambleden, we find a footnote to the name of William Henry Smith, the head of the well-known booksellers, who was first Lord of the Admiralty 1877-1880, connecting him with the famous skit in H.M.S. Pinafore. The book is full of asides such as these, giving the history of those who have been honoured by the nation, more intimately and personally than is possible in other works of the kind. A full review will shortly be published of this Peerage ; meanwhile we take the oppor- tunity of welcoming an undertaking which combines human sympathy with great erudition. This is not the fried parch.
merit of genealogy, but pdte-delois-gras of history. * * * *
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