Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/483

 1922 SHORT NOTICES 475 Industry, by Mary Cecilia Delany (London : Benn, 1921), augurs well for the persistence of the series. The subject was well chosen for a beginning ; it is not only attractive but lends itself to compact treatment. The iron of the Weald was worked plentifully by the Romans, and later from the thirteenth century, but the industry did not become important till the middle of the sixteenth century, and it ceased to be so by the end of the seventeenth. The basis of it was the production of ordnance from solid castings by boring. This process was invented at Buxted in 1543 (as stated on p. 38, and not, as stated on p. 32, in 1574), and the subsequent development of privateering created a strong demand which was met partly by smuggling, after restrictions had been laid on the exportation and a patent granted to raise a revenue out of the restriction. Govern- ment surveys from 1574 have provided materials for an account of the industry which have long been accessible in the Sussex Archaeological Collections and have been used by Dr. Smiles, Mr. Lower, and others. More recently accounts of the forge at Waldron in the seventeenth century and of the foundry at Heathfield in the eighteenth century have supplied fuller details. Miss Delany's task has been to bring these economic facts into relation with the geographical conditions, the deposits of ore in the Wealden strata, the forests that supplied fuel and the streams that fur- nished water-power for the blast and the hammers, and means of transport for the products of the forge. This has been admirably accomplished in the first half of the booklet and in three useful maps, where, however, Copthorne should appear to the south of Lingfield, and East Grinstead ought, as in the text, to have some contact with the Medway. Of much interest are the social vicissitudes of the families of ironmasters and the intermingling of gentry and yeomanry in this early form of capitalized industry ; but there seems to be no trace of an organization of free miners as in the Forest of Dean. G. U. The Rev. H. E. Salter has now no rival in the topography of the city of Oxford, and much of his store of learning appears in the little pamphlet, The Historic Names of the Streets and Lanes of Oxford Intro, Muros, which the Clarendon Press published last year. Its purpose is to advocate the restoration of the good old names, or at least such of them as are conformable to modern taste. The poet laureate writes a preface, but the pamphlet is a serious historical work with full references to authorities in the foot-notes. V. The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is one of the most flourishing institutions of its kind in the country. Besides possessing a very good library, it organizes lectures on subjects of local and of general interest. It has now published Three Lectures delivered on Old Newcastle, its Suburbs and Gilds, by Dr. F. W. Dendy. In the first lecture Dr. Dendy treats of the growth and development of the city ; in the second he deals briefly with the history of the various neighbouring townships which have successively been included within the city boundaries ; in the third he gives a short sketch of the gild system as it developed itself in Newcastle. Dr. Dendy's editions, for the Surtees Society, of the records