75 



" Brief Lives," chiefly of Contemporaries, set down 

 by John Aubrey between the years 1669 and 

 1696. Edited from the Author's MSS. by Andrew 



Clarke, M.A. Oxford : Clarendon Press. 1898. Two vols. 



This is the first time that the entire collection of Aubrey's Brief Lives 

 has been given to the world. Many of them were written for Anthony 

 Wood, who incorporated them, with mauy excisions, in " AthenseOxonienses," 

 first published in 1690, though not appearing in a complete form till 1721. 

 In 1787 the first part of a series intended to be called " The Oxford Cabinet " 

 was published by Caulfield, containing four of the "Lives." In 1813 the 

 Lives appeared as part of a collection entitled " Letters written by Eminent 

 Persons and Lives of Eminent Men by John Aubrey," edited by Dr. Bliss 

 and the Rev. John Walker. Of this edition Mr. Andrew Clarke says : — " It 

 is marred by many grave blunders and arbitrary omissions." The aim of 

 the present edition is " to give in full all that Aubrey has written in his 

 four chief MSS. of biographies— MSS. Aubrey, 6, 7, 8, 9. The entire 

 contents of these MSS. will . . . henceforth be accessible to all. Some 

 things in Aubrey's writing offend, not merely against our present canons 

 of good taste, but against good morals. The conversation of the people 

 among whom Aubrey moved, although they were gentry both in position 

 and education, was often vulgar and occasionally foul, as judged by us. I 

 have dealt with these lives as historical documents, leaving them, with very 

 few excisions, to bear, unchecked, their testimony as to the manners and 

 morals of Restoration England." Reviewed, Standard, March 15th; Notes 

 and Queries, March 19th, 1898. 



Rev A. Du Boulay Hill, Vicar of Down ton. " a Saxon 



Church at Breamore, Hants." Archceological Journal, March, 1898, vol. 

 lv., No. 217, pp. 84 — 87. This is the interesting account of the discover}' 

 of extensive remains of Saxon work at Breamore which was read by Mr. 

 Hill at the Bradford Meeting of the Wilts Archreological Society last year. 

 It is illustrated with plans of Breamore, Deerhurst, and Dover, and with 

 good collotypes of the south transept arch and of the curious rood in a 

 chamber over the south porch at Breamore. 



B»eV. W. E. CockshOtt. "A sermon preached at the Parish Church of 

 Wootton Bassett, Sunday evening, Feb. 20th,, 1S98. Price 2d." Pamphlet, 

 8vo, pp. 8. Preached on the Sunday before the election for the CricMade 

 Division. 



