Notices of Books. CHERTSEY ABBEY: AN EXISTENCE OF THE PAST. With a Preface by Sir SWINFEN EADY. By LUCY WHeeler. London: Wells Gardner, THE history of a great religious foundation is always a fascinating study, more particularly when we can trace it from the earliest days of Christian England. What story, for instance, is more engrossing than the vicissitudes of the little community which, founded on Holy Island by Aidan, eventually grew into the majestic Abbey of Durham; or the tale of Hexham Priory, from the time when Wilfrid built "the finest church on this side of the Alps," to the day when the Master of Ovingham, in 1536, "beyng in harnes, with a bowe bentt with arrowes," stood on the walls, ready "to defend and kepe the same with force"? On another page Mr. Ditchfield has traced the history of the Abbey of Abingdon; and in this volume we have a detailed account of another great mitred Abbey beside the Thames. The stories of these pre-Conquest foundations run on more or less parallel lines there is the same initial enthusiasm, the same calamities during the Danish invasions, the same period of laxity, and the same revival of religious life; then we find the same ambition for architectural splendour, territorial aggrandisement, and temporal jurisdiction, till at last opulence and privilege bring on the inevitable period of decay. In this book we may follow the history of Chertsey Abbey through all these stages. Nominally founded by Frithwald, an ealdorman of Surrey, in A.D. 666, it owed its life and organisation to its first Abbot, Erkenwald, afterwards Bishop of London, a remarkable man even in that period of remarkable men and women—the age when England imported Aidan and Theodore, and produced Wilfrid, Cuthbert, Hild, Caedmon, and Baeda. Miss Wheeler describes the thirteenth century as the "Monastic Golden Age," but the phrase might more truly be applied to the end of the seventh and the opening of the eight centuries: a period golden not with material wealth, but with work and workers. We have not space to follow the writer through her minute and interesting account of the Abbey's history, its possessions, and its privileges; but we must notice one point which is of some importancethe suggested identification of Hugh, Abbot of Chertsey, in 1152, with Hugh de Puiset, who became Bishop of Durham in the following year. The identification is based on the fact that in each case Hugh is described as a nephew of King Stephen; and though none of the northern historians mention the Abbacy, it is not improbable that the young man (he was twenty-five in 1153) was a pluralist. Before his election to the see of Durham he was Treasurer and Archdeacon of York. If the suggestion be correct, it is a curious coincidence that Chertsey should have supplied the two Bishops of Durham to whom we owe the majestic donjon of Norham Castle by the Tweed, built by Ralph Flambard, who was Abbot of Chertsey from 1092 to 1100, and restored by Hugh de Puiset in 1154. In the title the Abbey is described as "an existence of the past," and, unfortunately, the description is only too correct, since scarcely a vestige remains of this once magnificent edifice, Much of the material was used in building the palace of Oatlands, which in its turn has disappeared almost as completely as the Abbey. Happily, a number of medieval encaustic tiles have been recovered from the site of the latter building, and many of them are to be seen in the British Museum. To these a special chapter is devoted. NEOLITHIC MAN IN NORTH-EAST SURREY. BY WALTER JOHNSON and WILLIAM WRIGHT. London: Elliot Stock, 1906. The ever-increasing interest that is excited by the engaging study of Neolithic Man renders any addition to literature that adds to our knowledge of the prehistoric eras of this country most welcome to all who take an interest in the untiring efforts made by savage man to attain civilisation in the remote past. In ancient times, the peoples of all countries, from far Egypt to Scandinavia, were, at one stage of their development, users of flint and bone implements only; and there is no difference between some of the flint knives and arrow-heads found in the sands of the Theba ndesert and those so frequently discovered in our own Thames valley. It is an astonishing fact that this enthralling study is quite a modern one, for although the ancients of historical times were acquainted with stone implements, they did not connect them with man, but looked upon them with superstition, attributing them to the gods. In the Middle Ages the fairies were held accountable for their manufacture, flint arrow-heads being called elf-bolts; and at the present time, in outlying districts of Ireland, the peasants still believe in their efficacy to cure disease by touch. With this book and a few flint implements before us, we can shut our eyes to our everyday surroundings, and picture the days when man brought down his quarry with a flint-tipped arrow, and proceeded to skin and dismember it with his flint knife: that useful tool without which he would have been in no better position than the wild beast that has to rend its food with claws and teeth. Further, to show how effective these simple weapons were, bones of animals, and even of man himself, have been found with Neolithic arrow- and lance-heads still firmly embedded in their structure. This ably-written book is not only delightfully instructive, but will also suggest to the reader the joy of being a collector of the seemingly imperishable witnesses of early man's ingenuity therein described. Apart from the interesting description of the Neolithic implements, the topographical chapters, dealing with prehistoric camps and trackways, are of especial value to Surrey ramblers with antiquarian proclivities. NOTES ON THE EARLIER HISTORY OF BARTON-ON-HUMBER. BY ROBERT BROWN, Junior, F.S. A. London: Elliot Stock, 1906. THIS is a scholarly work, bearing evidence of patient research, and the author is to be congratulated on the production of a book which throws considerable light on the early history of the town of Bartonon-Humber, and incidentally upon the county of Lincolnshire in Anglo-Saxon and Danish times. Barton-on-Humber is a town of great antiquity in a district closely associated with Roman civilisation, although not itself, apparently, of Roman foundation. We learn from Mr. Brown's valuable work that Barton was an important road-centre in Romano-British times. Its greatest interest, however, attaches to the Anglo-Saxon and Danish periods of our country's history, which are dealt with at length in this volume, commencing with the name of the town, which is purely Anglo-Saxon, derived from the words bere-barley, and tún - an enclosure. The Anglo-Saxon name Beretún appears in Domesday as Bertone; in the Lindsey Survey, A.D. 1115, as Bartuna; in a Final Concord of A.D. 1202 as Bareton; in a Final Concord of A.D. 1207 as Bacthon in a Final Concord of A.D. 1238-9 as Barthon; and in a map of Lincolnshire, A.D. 1576, as Bato, now Barton. The author, however, does not assert that the Saxon invaders founded the town, but considers that they gave the name Beretún "to a town of : |