Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/356

 300 NOTICES OF ARCH.EOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. paraphernalia of Greek art have been engraved. Unfortunately, some vases, owing to colour, are intractable to photography, and only ofter hazy indications of their art. The Etruscan and Konian series has a similar series of views of galleries and principal objects, both of marble and other materials of the glyptic art. The antiquities of Britain of the lustoriciil period are well represented. The prehistoric have been already mentioned. Both Celtic and Anglo-PiOnmn remains are so well known and studied that it is only necessary to point out a few of the jirincipal cxamj.lcs, such as the I'mtish shield of a Celtic horseman (No. 1)01), tlic remarkable helmet like a jester cap (No. 1)0;5), the bronze statuette of the .supposed Britannicus or the youthful Nero. In the medi. OOS (No. P22), the walrus ivoiy chessmen from the Hebrides (No. i>l'4), and some fine exanijilcs of Arabic, Persian, Venetian, and German glass and majolica, complete this l>ortiou of the subject. There is also a sub-division of seals, or the sphragistic art. It is the most complete collection of great seals of Eng- land yet i)ublished. And as all classes, both foreign and English, arc included, it is an important contribution to the study of this interesting and continuous sequence of medireval art. The jjhotographs are the most remarkable and extensive contribution to the study of arduTology as yet ]iublishcd in this form. The jjiddic spirit with which Mr. C. Harrison undertook and carried out his scheme, and the admirable way in which Mr. Steiihen Thompson the photogi-apher has executed them, cannot be adequately praised. Some branches are still wanting, as Numismatics, which can be admirably produced by ph<jtograi)hy, with a truth of detail imjwssible to convey by engraving, and I'ahcography, which, under certain conditions, is capable of being well shown by ])hotography. This last division will, it is understood, apjicar in a continuation or supplement of the original designs of ^Ir. Harrison. Of all substitutes for the object itself, i)hotograi)hy is the most portable and most faithful in all cases where it can bo advantageously used. It is nature-])ortrait, the object reflected on the larger retina t)f a lens, and ijcrmanently fixed. Hereafter, when it is more ]ici'manent, it may supersede all other methods of figuring objects of arclucology. STHKAM.S FlfOM HIDDKN SOURCKS. V. V,. Montgomeuib Ranking. Lon<loii : H. S. King k C., 1672. It does not often iiappen that a book of research is interesting to the general reader. It is more usual to find work of the kind nfiliscdby some writer who could not have made the invest igalions from which he derives jiis infoiTTiation. Ihit in this book, Mr. itanking has united the good ofliccH of the bookworm ajwl the storyteller. Ho has arranged in u rcadaldc form seven slories from tlic meiliieval ronninccin, Ca.t.on and the (,'rKlii Jiomnitonnn, the Mortc d' Arthur and the J.iynnf't /^aiirtonmi, and has prefi.xed to each story some account of the nccessible sources froni which he has taken it. The title of the book is thus doubly unfortunate, for not only clooH it lead us to expect tales from Sanscrit or the Sagns ; which to Eni^lisli readci-s, are more or less rocoudilc, but it seems to asHume that no oik; but the author is able to interpret the pages of crabbe<l bl.irk letter in which they are reconled. Wo would fain believe that not .Nil. iJiinking, but some cdit«tr, is rcHponsil)lc for this title.