342 CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



A Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury, interspersed with brief 

 notices of the more remarkable objects in the Environs, and 

 embellished with twenty-one engravings. Shrewsbury : Davies. 

 1836. 



There are innumerable Guide-books in this kingdom : every town, 

 and almost every village, has its printed Guide ; and, on inspection, 

 a very worthless set of books they usually prove. It is quite a treat 

 to see a well arranged and readable Guide to any town or watering- 

 place of the least consequence ; and although we picked up this 

 Shrewsbury Guide under the accustomed impression, that it would 

 hardly recompense the time consumed in reading it, we are now 

 free to confess that this Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury is 

 not only an exception to those common-place publications, but, in 

 every particular, a well-arranged, comprehensive, correct, and intel- 

 ligent book of reference. There is no town in England better 

 known by name than Shrewsbury — from its cakes and annual shew, 

 to its famed grammar-school and useful institutions: but this Guide 

 will make both natives and strangers better acquainted with its an- 

 tiquity, its internal regulations, and the character of its inhabitants, 

 than could have been derived from any previous publication of the 

 kind. It goes so minutely into particulars, traces sources with so 

 much industry and accuracy, and details events with so much vivid- 

 ness and perspicuity, that it should be called A miniature History of 

 Shrewsbury, and not a mere Guide to its streets and curiosities. — 

 With respect to the printing and the wood-cuts (of which there are 

 twenty-one in number), we scarcely know which most to admire ; 

 the former would do credit to the London press, and some of the 

 latter remind us of the exquisitely-wrought designs of the celebrated 

 Bewick. We trust that all future writers of Guides will take a 

 lesson from this very commendable specimen, and thereby infuse a 

 portion of that interest which every book, however trifling its sub- 

 ject, must possess, if it be the object of the author that it should be 

 generally read. In addition to the usual matter, there is appended 

 a list of the eminent natives of Shrewsbury, with references to 

 works in which their biographies are detailed ; and the names of a 

 few of the rarer species of plants growing in a wild state in the 

 immediate vicinity of the town. 



Magazine qf Natural History. Gardener's Magazine. The Archi- 

 tectural Magazine. Arboretum Britannicum. Numbers for April, 

 May, and June. London : Longman & Co. 



The original articles which have appeared in these publications 

 during the last three months, possess more than usual interest. In 

 the Magazine of Natural History we would more particularly 

 point out the valuable papers by Dr. Johnston, of Berwick-upon- 

 Tweed, E. Forbes, Esq., C. C. Babbington, Esq., F.L.S., J. Mar- 

 shall, Esq., and Mr. W. H. White. The Gardener's and the Archi- 



