Collections of Wills have always been regarded, and very justly so, as
among the most valuable materials which exist for illustrating the
social condition of the people at the period to which they belong.
Executed, as they must be, at moments the most solemn displaying, as we
cannot but believe they do, the real feelings which actuate the
testators; and having for their object the distribution of existing
property, and that of every possible variety of description, it is
obvious that they alike call for investigation, and are calculated to
repay any labour that may be bestowed upon them. It is therefore,
perhaps, somewhat matter of surprise that the Camden Society should not
hitherto have printed any of this interesting class of documents; and
that only in the twelfth year of its existence it should have given to
its members the very interesting volume of _Wills and Inventories from
the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St. Edmunds and the Archdeacon
of Sudbury_, which has been edited for the Society by Mr. Tymms, the
active and intelligent Treasurer and Secretary of the Bury and West
Suffolk ArchÊological Institute. The selection contains upwards of fifty
Wills, dated between 1370 and 1649, and the documents are illustrated by
a number of brief but very instructive notes; and as the volume is
rendered more useful by a series of very complete indices, we have no
doubt it will be as satisfactory to the members as it is creditable to
its editor. Mr. Tymms acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Way and Mr. J.
Gough Nicols: we are sure the Camden Society would be under still
greater obligations to those gentlemen if they could be persuaded to
undertake the production of the series of Lambeth Wills which was to
have been edited by the late Mr. Stapleton, with Mr. Way's assistance.
When the proprietors of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at the commencement
of the present year announced their projected improvements in that
periodical, we expressed our confidence that they would really and
earnestly put forth fresh claims to the favour of the public. Our
anticipations have been fully realised. Each succeeding number has shown
increased energy and talent in the "discovery and establishment of
historical truth in all its branches," and that the conductors of this
valuable periodical, the only "Historical Review" in the country,
continue to pursue these great objects faithfully and honestly, as in
times past, but more diligently and more undividedly. No student of
English history can now dispense with, no library which places
historical works upon its shelves can now be complete without _The
Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review_.
We have received the following Catalogues:--G. Willis's (Great Piazza,
Covent Garden) Catalogue No. 41. New Series of Second-hand Books,
Ancient and Modern; W.S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road)
Sixtieth (catalogue of Cheap Second-hand English and Foreign Books); C.
Hamilton's (4. Budge Place, City Road) Catalogue No. 41. of an important
Collection of the Cheapest Tracts, Books, Autographs, Manuscripts,
Original Drawings, &c. ever offered for sale.
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