The importance of Winchelsea as a convenient port for communication with
France, from the time of the Conquest to the close of the fifteenth
century, having led to a wish for a more extended history of that town than
is to be found in any work relating either to the Cinque Ports or to the
county of Sussex, Mr. Durrant Cooper determined to gather together the
existing materials for such a history as a contribution to the Sussex
Archæological Society. The industry, however, with which Mr. Cooper
prosecuted his search after original records and other materials connected
with the town and its varied history, was rewarded by the discovery of so
many important documents as to render it impossible to carry out his
original intention. The present separate work, entitled _The History of
Winchelsea, one of the Ancient Towns added to the Cinque Ports_, is the
result of this change; and the good people of Winchelsea have now to thank
Mr. Cooper for a history of it, which has been as carefully prepared as it
has been judiciously executed. Mr. Cooper has increased the amusement and
information to be derived from his volume, by the manner in which he has
contrived to make transactions of great historical importance illustrate
his narrative of events of merely local interest.
The new edition of the _Pictorial Shakspeare_ which Mr. Charles Knight has
just commenced under the title of the "National Edition" cannot, we think,
prove other than a most successful attempt to circulate among all classes,
but especially among readers of comparatively small means, a cheap,
well-edited, and beautifully illustrated edition of the works of our great
poet. The text of the present edition is not printed, {351} like of its
precursor, in double columns, but in a distinct and handsome type extending
across the page; and as there is no doubt the notes will be revised so as
to incorporate the amendments and elucidations of the text, which have
appeared from our Colliers, Hunters, &c., since the _Pictorial Shakspeare_
was first published, there can be little doubt but that this _National
Edition_ will meet with a sale commensurate with the taste and enterprise
of its editor and publisher, Mr. Knight.
We have received the following Catalogues:--W. Waller and Son's (188. Fleet
Street) Catalogue Part III. for 1850 of Choice Books at remarkably low
prices, in the best condition; John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue
Part CXVI. No. 10. for 1850 of Old and New Books; Williams and Norgate's
(14. Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue No. 1. of Second-hand Books
and Books at reduced Prices.
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