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Our members, will, we doubt not, feel grateful to Mr. Donnelly for the pains he has taken to keep the Association acquainted with each detail of the find as it has taken place; and we shall look forward with much pleasure to the paper which he has promised us early in the new year, on the pre-historic discoveries which he has made in the basin of the Clyde as a whole. No more interesting chapter

in the life-history of Early Man in Britain has, if genuine, which we have at present no valid ground for doubting, been opened for a long time. We enter the proviso because we note that Dr. Munro now calls their genuineness in question, but the matter is still sub judice.

Ecclesiastical Curiosities, Chapters on History, Antiquities, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc., of the Church. Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, Author of "England in the Days of Old," "Bygone Punishments," etc. (The book will be issued to subscribers at 5s. per copy, and on the day of publication it will be advanced to 7s. 6d.).—This book will deal in a popular and at the same time scholar-like style with matters of the greatest interest in the history, custom, folk-lore, etc., of the English Church. Mr. Andrews has obtained the co-operation of several eminent scholars and authors to assist him; they have written on subjects to which they have paid special attention, and the result is a book by specialists. The Editor's aim is to prepare a volume of general interest, which will entertain and instruct the reader, furnish fact, illustration, and anecdote for the pulpit, for the platform, for conversation, and at the same time supply an addition to the reference library. An important feature of the present book is the many illustrations by eminent artists which will be found in its pages. Among the contents are included articles on:-The Church Door.-Sacrificial Foundations.-The Building of the English Cathedrals.—Some Famous Spires.-Concerning Font-Lore.-Church Chests.-An Antiquarian Problem: The Leper Window--and Churchyard Superstitions. A carefully prepared index will enable the reader to refer to the varied and interesting contents of the book.

Annals of Hyde and District.-Containing Historical Reminiscences of Denton, Haughton, Dukinfield, Mottram, Longdendale, Bredbury, Marple, and the neighbouring townships. By THOMAS MIDDLETON, Author of "Beatrice Arden," "For God and the King," "The Western Mail," etc., etc. (Crown 4to, superior thick paper edition, half-bound white vellum, cloth sides, lettered, gilt top. Subscribers, 158. net non-subscribers, 21s. net. Demy 8vo, thick paper edition, full-bound cloth, lettered. Subscribers, 78. 6d. net: non-subscribers,

10s. 6d. net. Manchester: Cartwright and Rattray, Ltd., 12 and 14, Brown Street.)

The town of Hyde is looked on generally as a place with small pretensions to antiquity, compared to some of the neighbouring boroughs, and possessed of no history worth recording outside the story of its own industrial growth.

To some extent there is reason in this common theory. Old men can remember the time when the town of Hyde was still unborn, and the village of Gee Cross was the principal portion of the township. And one hundred and fifty years ago even Gee Cross had no existence, as is clearly evidenced by the following extract from a publication of the close of the last century.

Aiken, in his valuable work published in 1795, says of this district: "Near the commencement of the Eastern Horn of Cheshire, which runs up into the wild country bordering on Yorkshire and the Peak of Derbyshire, is Hyde Chapel, or as it is now called, Gee Cross. The chapel is a Dissenting place of worship. About twenty-five years ago there was only one house besides; now the place looks like a little town, and forms a continued street of nearly a mile; near it is Red Pump Street, a new village lately built by Mr. Sidebotham."

From this, not only does it appear that Hyde was once a suburb of Gee Cross, and that both were unknown as centres of population at the commencement of the eighteenth century, but it would also seem upon consulting the map contained in Aiken's work, which clearly locates the spot, that Red Pump Street was the origin of the modern town of Hyde; and that the now flourishing manufacturing borough once and not so long ago-bore that peculiar appellation.

But if Hyde itself is of strictly modern growth, and if its written records are but few, the district of Hyde was there from the beginning. No place is without a history, and nothing on the earth is altogether of the present. The hills and dales, the wooded uplands and the streams of the district must have the knowledge of a past pregnant with interest buried deep within them. This story, happily, is not altogether lost. Here and there the country has shown records. to us, remnants of a long-gone life, footprints of departed races, ruined works of long-forgotten men; and legend and tradition have preserved for us some knowledge at least of those distant days, of the customs of the people who lived in them, and of the deeds and histories of many famous men.

It is this story the present writer tells. He starts at the earliest known ages, and follows the general history of the district through all the succeeding eras and changes that the country has passed

through; and that done, deals with the more modern and special history of the town of Hyde itself.

Mention is also made, and a brief history given, of the old halls and families of the locality, and the principal men of note that it has at different times sent forth, as, for example, Hyde Hall and the Hydes, of which family the famous Earl of Clarendon was the most illustrious member, and the Hyde-Clarkes; Dukinfield Hall and the Dukinfields and Astleys; Marple Hall and the Bradshaws; and the families of Denton, Holland and De Holynworth. The folk-lore and traditions of the neighbourhood are also recorded.

For the convenience of the reader and the better dealing with the facts and lore in question, the writer has split the history up into sections each section dealing with the story of some particular age or phase of national life. This course gives a more continuous nature to the record than the haphazard dealing with the story of any one particular spot, building, or individual of note.

The contents thus include a general history of the district; the town of Hyde; old halls and families in the neighbourhood, and the famous men of the locality; and numerous illustrations of places and people brighten its pages.

A Book about Bells. By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., Author of The Cross in Ritual Architecture and Art, Historic Dress of the Clergy, etc. (London: Wm. Andrews and Co., 5, Farringdon Avenue. 6s.).— We were enabled in our June issue to call attention to this work, which we have now the pleasure of recommending to those of our members who are interested in the subject of which it treats. And who is not interested in bells? As Mr. Tyack says: "Their voices to some tell only of daily duty, of the return of hours of toil, of the flight of inexorable time; to others they speak of devotion; to others the bells are instruments of heart-stirring music. An increasing number, however, take an interest in the bells themselves: and then the belfry has a story to tell!"

As may be seen by a study of the table of contents which we published in June, there is scarcely anything connected with bells, sacred or profane, ancient or modern, which Mr. Tyack has not touched upon, and, if we may use the expression, made musically eloquent. His outlook ranges from England to Burmah, from Burmah to Russia, and, after traversing the Continent, back again to England. From our own point of view, what he tells us about the introduction into, and the use of bells in, our own country is the most interesting; and here we find Mr. Tyack a guide to be depended upon. His

information as to medieval founders and foundries; as to the inscriptions on church bells, often quaint, usually devotional, and as to the large part which the bells played in the lives of our forefathers, is full and complete. The oldest-dated bell known to exist in England is at Claughton, in Lancashire, and the inscription, forming a circle round it, runs as follows: ANNO. DNI. M. CC. NONOG. AI, viz., A.D. 1296. (Note the curious method of expressing the date). The use of the Sanctus Bell before the Mass, and of the Sacring Bell at the elevation of the Host, and the fact that one of these latter still hangs in its old place on the rood-screen at Scarning, in Norfolk, is duly noted.

There are numerous excellent illustrations (of which we gave an example in our June Number) and two good indices, which much enhance the value and usefulness of the book.

Bygone Punishments. By WILLIAM ANDREWS, Author of England in the Days of Old, Literary Byways, etc. (London: Wm. Andrews and Co., 7s. 6d.).—This work is another of Mr. Andrews' well-known publications dealing with the customs of our ancestors in days of yore, and is the result of a long and careful study extending over twentyfive years. A tentative volume, issued nearly ten years ago, was praised by many eminent authorities; it was favourably noticed by the critical press, and in a few days passed out of print. Several fresh subjects receiving consideration, and additional illustrations being included, the present volume may in every respect be regarded, not as a second edition of a former production, but as an entirely new work.

Much useful information of varied interest to the student of social and national history is included in the volume. The general reader will find it entertaining, its pages presenting a wealth of out-of-theway knowledge not easily obtainable elsewhere. Its multitude of important facts and dates renders it a work to be consulted, and one that should find a permanent place in public and private libraries.

Many carefully executed illustrations from original drawings, photographs, old prints, etc., add much to the value of the volume.

A carefully-prepared Index will enable the reader to refer with ease to the contents of this book, which we have great pleasure in heartily recommending to our members.

The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln. Translated from the French Carthusian Life, and edited with large additions by HERBERT THURSTON, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, 10s. 6d.) The life of the saintly Bishop of Lincoln which is here presented to the reader is for the most part a translation of a French Life by a monk of the Grande

Chartreuse, published in 1890, but it is enriched with a large number of additional topics which are dealt with by the able editor, Father Thurston, in the text or in the notes; in which, especially, a variety of subjects of antiquarian interest, such as the question of perpetual vicarages; the Cathedral, the Jewry, and the Leper hospital at Lincoln; the site of the house where St. Hugh died in London, and of his tomb, are touched upon and elucidated. The story of St. Hugh's life is derived from two main sources, apart from contemporary documents, such as charters, grants, &c., viz., the Magna Vita S. Hugonis by a Benedictine monk, Adam, who was the Saint's chaplain, and afterwards Abbot of Eynsham, and the Vita Metrica, a long poem in hexameters, based on the Legenda contained in the works of Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Series, vol. vii.). The Magna Vita was edited in 1864 for the Rolls Series by the Rev. J. Dimock; but the necessity and the value of the Life now before us consists in the fact that it is the first accurate and sympathetic account of the saint's life to be offered to the English reader; the only previous one, the Life of St. Hugh of Avalon, by Archdeacon Perry, being written by one who, with all his learning and ability, was quite out of sympathy with the religious life of the Middle Ages; and, moreover, his book was full of inaccuracies.

The facts of St. Hugh's life may be briefly given. He was born in the year 1140, at Avalon, in Dauphiné, and was the son of William, Lord of Avalon, a man of true knightly character, and of Anna, his wife, who died when Hugh was only eight years old. Soon afterwards his father renounced the world for a religious life, and retired to the Priory of Villard Benoit, an establishment of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, taking little Hugh with him. After eleven years there, at the age of nineteen, Hugh was ordained deacon, and was soon placed in charge of the "cell" of St. Maximin. But the work of a parish priest did not satisfy the aspirations of the young enthusiast; a visit to the Grande Chartreuse, then in the zenith of its influence, decided his bent. He fell in love with it at first sight," and after some opposition, in the year 1163, he was admitted to the Order of Carthusians. In that lonely mountain solitude the next seventeen years were passed-ten as ordinary monk, seven as Procurator of the Monastery and the foundations laid for all his future usefulness. we come to the year 1180, when he was forty years old, which Father Thurston proves, against Mr. Dimock, who fixes 1175, to have been the year of his arrival in England. He came at the invitation of Henry II, to be the second prior of the new monastery of Witham, in Somerset, which the king had founded in expiation for the murder of

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