Books on Northern Topography. 431 
of the volumes in which he has obviously deeply delved. We are told 
that the most interesting fields of research are the historic places them- 
selves, though, with the possible exception of York (which is hardly in 
the Riding at all, and is therefore dealt with very fully !), there is certainly 
every evidence of lack of research, or anything like it. In the very first 
illustration (a ‘simple’ (!) geological map), limestone is shown where it 
should be clay, shale is shown where there is alluvium, and alluvium is 
indicated where there is no alluvium at all And the row of tents across 
Holderness, and the two volcanoes (?) on the wolds, are as misleading 
as they can possibly be. Presumably the former represents the glacial 
mounds, but our author can surely never have been in Holderness. 
The first chapter, ‘East Yorkshire in the Making,’ savours strongly of 
a small work, ‘The Making of East Yorkshire,’ issued a few years ago, 
which has obviously been consulted, and misunderstood. To say that 
the east coast is being denuded, and especially at Flamborough, shows 
the need of a trip-to the coast. To describe Ammonites as the ‘ most 
common ’ fossils on our coast does not agree with the views of those who 
know them, and in ‘ correcting a common mistake ’ with regard to these 
fossils the author falls into another. In describing the ‘ Tvopical’ Age 
“Arctic? should have been written, as the animals mentioned were clothed 
in long fur as a protection against the cold. While it may be ‘ not well 
to accept all the geologists tell us,’ but to ask for as much proof as 
possible, we wonder where Mr. Brockbank would be were he required 
to produce proofs of even a small proportion of his statements. The 
most antique of booksellers’ shops could not produce them. 
His descriptions of primitive man are equally wide of the mark, and 
most misleading. His localities for ‘considerable collections of flint 
implements’ are certainly wrong. Apparently a well-known Yorkshire 
museum has been consulted for the purpose of supplying illustrations, 
but either an earthquake has recently occurred in that institution and 
mixed up all the labels, or the author has been suffering from some form 
of blindness when he visited it. In one illustration a few trees on the 
horizon are described as a ‘ British Hut Circle,’ though what a ‘hut 
circle’ is the gods and Mr. Brockbank only know. Another photograph 
shows ‘Celts of the Bronze Age dug from round barrows.’ They were 
certainly never found in barrows ;—in fact the interest attaching to the 
particular forms figured is that they are never found with burials. The 
well-known Rudstone monolith is described as of ‘ Millstone Grit,’ which 
it certainly is not, and the statement that ‘ Drewton boasts of a similar 
pillay’ indicates that something must have happened to the author when 
viewing St. Austin’s Stone during his ‘research.’ Similarly, coming to 
more modern times, we find the information similarly archaic and mis- 
leading. For instance, it must have been a tome of the period of King 
Charles that gave him the information in reference to ‘ Beverley Minster, 
with its Canons and their residences,’ while the pretty parables about 
the zones of holiness at Beverley are probably the result of a very heavy 
supper. And what possible connection there is between Sadler’s picture 
entitled ‘ Thursday’ and ‘ East Yorkshire Monastic Life’ we will leave 
lovers of ‘ problem pictures’ to decide. And so we might go on to the 
last chapters, when His Worship the Mayor of Hull will probably be 
startled to learn that ‘until recently’ Hull owned its own telephone 
system. But the pages bristle with absurdities which might be amusing 
were the book meant to be humorous, and these, coupled with the 
irritating way in which the author frequently asks silly questions, and 
answers them himself (more or less correctly), makes one wonder what 
- grudge the Editor can have had against the unfortunate reviewer in 
handing him this book. 
30%: 
£10,000 has been given to the Leeds University, anonymously, for the 
erection of a building for a School of Agriculture. 
t913 Dect. 
