From time to time during the past century, excavations made intentionally or unintentionally, have revealed to modern eyes how large a store of remains still attest the presence of the Eagles of Imperial Rome in this country, though fifteen or sixteen centuries have passed since their departure from these shores. At Woodchester, on the Gloucestershire Hills; at Chesters near Hexham, on the Roman Wall; at Bignor near Petworth, on the Sussex Downs; at Carleon-upon-Usk in Monmouthshire; in north, south, and central London, at Colchester, at Lincoln, and in a dozen other places, we have seen exhumed from time to time, baths, ovens, kitchens, and temples with walls and floors inlaid with Roman mosaics, dating from the days of the Antonines and Hadrian.

But few of these places are of greater interest than Brading in the Isle of Wight, near which Messrs. Price brought to light, in 1880, the ground-plan of one Roman villa, almost complete. The explorations originated in the discovery of such indications of Roman buildings as offered encouragement for further investigation. Here a short time previously to our authors’ assisting in the matter, Captain Thorp, of Yarbridge, had discovered fragments of walls, roof tiles, and traces of pavements, and had devoted a considerable amount of energy and zeal to the complete examination of the ground. Before many months had passed by, it was found necessary, on account of the number of pilgrims who flocked thither, to publish a guide, giving a description of the discoveries. This has now reached the honours of an eleventh edition. In this Guide the dimensions of the several chambers of which the building consisted are duly set forth, and the fragments of pottery, mosaics, and tessellated pavements fully described and illustrated. By the kindness of the authors we are enabled to reproduce one of the illustrations,[78] which represents a group in the south-west compartment of the lower portion of the pavement of one of the larger chambers, admirably worked in small tesserÆ of varied colours. There is a female figure partially draped after the manner of the saltatrix or dancing girl of Greece or Italy, playing upon a tambourine; her companion is a male figure of more than ordinary interest, on account of the peculiarities presented by the costume worn—a Phrygian cap, a skirted tunic with a small cloak or pallium fastened on the right shoulder, and braccÆ or “trousers.” “The peculiarity of this dress,” writes Messrs. Price, “leads to the opinion that it may be that in fashion at the time the mosaic was laid down, because the form given to the braccÆ is different to that usually met with in the costume attributed to the ‘barbarians’ or provincial nations in Roman sculpture.”

By the publication of this valuable and handsome volume Mr. Greenstreet has done good service to the cause of historical research, and has earned the gratitude of all those who are lovers of exact scholarship. The Lincolnshire Survey enjoys the reputation of being probably the earliest after Domesday, which had only preceded it by some thirty years, and which, in form, it closely resembles. In the autotype plates by which this ancient survey is here reproduced in fac-simile, the writing is as clear almost throughout, as when the parchment first received it 770 years ago. It was fitting that a record which can only appeal to antiquarian connoisseurs should be issued in the choicest form, and Mr. Greenstreet’s subscribers have good reason to be satisfied with the appearance of the work. The title-page is appropriately adorned with the arms of eight of the leading families whose names occur in the survey, grouped round those of the See of Lincoln. Our readers need not be reminded of Mr. Greenstreet’s eminence as a herald, possessing as they do, in these pages, from his pen, more than one valuable Roll of Arms. We trust that the enterprise he has shown in bringing out this important work may serve to arouse a wider interest in the obscure period with which it deals, and, consequently, in the work of the Pipe-Roll Society, of which Mr. Greenstreet is the honorary secretary, and one of the most zealous promoters.

This is the title of a work which will be found to fill an important blank in the history of the American Revolution. It is the work of one of Governor Hutchinson’s great-grandsons. It supplies many personal memoranda of the leaders on both sides in that struggle, including several notices of the Copleys, Pepperells, and other Royalists, who settled in England when the breach between the old country and her colonies was complete. There is from first to last about it no attempt at fine or sensational writing, or at “stating the case” on behalf of the Royalist cause; it consists of plain matters of fact, extracts from diaries, letters, &c., and these are such as give the reader the clearest insight into the transactions which it records, and the conduct of the chief movers in them. As a painstaking effort to place on permanent record a portion of history of which but little is known, and which as yet has found no adequate historian, the book is deserving of all praise.

It is not to be wondered at, considering the part which the veteran Mr. Bloxam has played in the revival of the study of Gothic architecture, that this book should have reached its eleventh edition, or that from a small 12mo. volume, couched in a catechetical form, it should have attained the honour of a library edition—for that is what is now the case. Along with the late Mr. J. H. Parker, of Oxford, Mr. Bloxam was one of the chief pioneers of that movement which has found its outcome in the many flourishing county and diocesan architectural and archÆological societies which are scattered up and down England, and in those pleasant annual congresses which Mr. Bloxam himself attended and instructed till the weight of eighty years forced him to abandon them. Most of the older men of the present generation can say that it was from Mr. Bloxam’s little work that they imbibed their earliest taste in the above direction, and they will be not the less glad to possess the three volumes into which that work has been gradually expanded on account of the portrait of its author prefixed to it. The treatise really is one which needs no recommendation at our hands; but it is as well to add that the third volume is devoted to an account of the costumes of monumental effigies—a branch of the subject to which Mr. Bloxam of late years has paid especial attention. The illustrations are exquisitely done; and three good indexes add a special value to the work as a book of reference.