THE DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Edited by Sidney S. Low, B. A.,
late Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, Lecturer on Modern History,
King’s College, London; and F. S. Pulling, M. A., late Professor
of Modern History, Yorkshire College, Leeds. New York: _Cassell &
Company, Limited_.
The first thought that suggests itself upon taking up Messrs. Cassell
& Company’s “Dictionary of English History” is “why was this important
work not done long ago?” The want of such a book of reference is not
a new one but has been long felt by students and amateurs of history.
Indeed there is hardly a man or woman who has not at some time or other
felt the need of furbishing up his or her historical knowledge at short
notice. One may hunt the pages of a history by the hour and not find
the date or incident he wants to know about. The editors of this stout
volume, Sidney J. Low, B.A. and F. S. Pulling, M.A., have made the
successful attempt to give a convenient handbook on the whole subject
of English history and to make it useful rather than exhaustive. The
present work is not an encyclopædia, and the editors are aware that
many things are omitted from it which might have been included, had
its limits been wider, and its aim more ambitious. To produce a book
which should give, as concisely as possible, just the information,
biographical, bibliographical, chronological, and constitutional,
that the reader of English history is likely to want is what has
been here attempted. The needs of modern readers have been kept in
view. Practical convenience has guided them in the somewhat arbitrary
selection that they have been compelled to make, and their plan had
been chosen with great care and after many experiments. It should be
said that though the book is called a Dictionary of English History
that the historical events of Scotland, Ireland and Wales are included.
The contributors for special articles, have been selected from among
the best-known historical writers in England, and no pains have been
spared to make this book complete in the field it has aimed to cover.
That high authority, the London _Athenæum_, has the following words of
praise for this work:—
“This book will really be a great boon to every one who makes a study
of English history. Many such students must have desired before now to
be able to refer to an alphabetical list of subjects, even with the
briefest possible explanations. But in this admirable dictionary the
want is more than supplied. For not only is the list of subjects in
itself wonderfully complete, but the account given of each subject,
though condensed, is wonderfully complete also. The book is printed in
double columns royal octavo, and consists of 1119 pages, including a
very useful index to subjects on which separate articles are not given.
As some indication of the scale of treatment we may mention that the
article on Lord Beaconsfield occupies nearly a whole page, that on
Bothwell (Mary’s Bothwell) exactly a column, the old kingdom of Deira
something more than a column, Henry VIII. three pages, Ireland seven
and a half pages, and the Norman Conquest three pages exactly. Under
the head of ‘King,’ which occupies in all rather more than seven pages,
are included, in small print, tables of the regnal years of all the
English sovereigns from the Conquest. There is also a very important
article, ‘Authorities on English History,’ by Mr. Bass Bullinger, which
covers six and a quarter pages, and which will be an extremely useful
guide to any one beginning an historical investigation.
“Many of the longer articles contain all that could be wished to give
the reader a concise view of an important epoch or reign. Of this Mrs.
Gardiner’s article on Charles I. is a good example. Ireland is in like
manner succinctly treated by Mr. Woulfe Flanagan in seven and a half
pages, and India by Mr. C. E. Black in six, while the Indian Mutiny
of 1857-8 has an article to itself of a page and a half by Mr. Low.
Institutions also, like Convocation, customs like borough English,
orders of men such as friars, and officers like that of constable, have
each a separate heading; and the name of the contributors—including,
besides those already mentioned, such men as Mr. Creighton, Profs.
Earle, Thorold Rogers, and Rowley, and some others whose qualifications
are beyond question—afford the student a guarantee that he is under
sure guidance as to facts.”
PERSONAL TRAITS OF BRITISH AUTHORS. WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, LAMB,
HAZLITT, LEIGH HUNT, PROCTER. Edited by Edward T. Mason. New York:
_Charles Scribner’s Sons_.