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NIDDERDALE AND ITS NATURAL HISTORY. 
Nidderdale | and the | Garden of the Nidd: | a Yorkshire Rhineland. | 
Being a complete account, | Historical, Scientific, and Descriptive | of the beautiful 
altet ak the Nidd. | ey | Harry SpeicuT, |. . |. . | Illustrated. | London: | 
Elliot Stock.) .... |, 8304: 4. 
SCATTERED about in various places—in the muniment chests of old. 
manor houses and castles, in the private libraries and collections of anti- 
quaries, but perhaps chiefly in old public libraries, such as the Bodleian, 
the British Museum, and the Public Records office, amongst others 
there are invaluable records, letters, and other MSS., containing most 
interesting information respecting the ancient and medizeval history 
of our native land. To the great mass of the reading public these 
are virtually sealed books : and it is only when some ardent searcher 
pres local historical events hunts through these oft-times musty 
tomes and bundles, and extracts the items, one by one, and then 
combines them into a consecutive record of events and actions that 
—of Mr. Harry Speight, of Bingley, the author of the book before 
us, and we most heartily congratulate him on its production. It 
would be impossible in our limited space to give any extended view 
of the many points of interest, both local and general, which are 
detailed in this handsome volume of nearly 500 pages. This is the 
third volume which Mr. Speight has given us respecting Yorkshire 
dales and rivers, viz., ‘ Airedale’ (1891), ‘Craven and the North-West 
Highlands of Yorkshire’ (1892), and the present work, which we 
sincerely hope will be followed by athe similar ones on other river 
valleys of the county of ‘broad acres. 
The first seventy pages are devoted to an account of the 
natural history of the district, but we regret to find that there is no 
separate chapter on its geology. The ‘Flora’ is from the pen of | 
Mr. F. Arnold Lees, author of the ‘Flora of West Yorkshire,’ and 
includes some notes on plant distribution, from which we extract the 
following summary :—‘ All told, the Flora of Nidderdale includes over 
1,000 species ; there are 690 flowering plants, 32 ferns and fern allies, 
whilst the 286 lower forms of vegetation (taking no count of the 
fungi or algze) bring up the total to eight above the number stated. 
This falls short of those of the river basins of the Yore and Wharfe 
to the north and south Aerie but the area of both these, and 
the extent of calcareous rock at the surface, is very much greater. 
In proportion to its size the rege has the richer flora.’ A list of 
plants under five groups is then given, followed by a detailed list of 
genera and species with their localities. 
