Page:The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire Part 2.djvu/813

 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. A handsome volume of ambitions design. Mr. Foster has devoted the last five years to the production of a trustworthy book of reference. . . . The whole work has been prepared with great care and taste, and gives promise of taking its place in the foremost rank of such publications. — The Gloie. The amount of work expended in the collection of the details contained in this book is something appalling to the ordinary mind. These facts require study before they can be estimated or criticised, but there is one feature of the book which will be apparent to the most casual turner-over of the leaves. We all know the trim arms usual in Peerages, where all the coats are at first sight as much alike as two peas. But here all is different. The supporters look as if they were supporting something, and many of the shields Mould evidently fall into space without their assistance. All is life and action, so that these woodcuts, which are all di-awn from authentic sources, give a liveliness to the volume which it would not otherwise possess. — Temple Bar. Mr. Foster, as the result of most arduous labours, has succeeded in compiling a work containing in all its several parts a vast amount of useful and much novel in- formation, and has done this in a manner that deserves high praise. — Land and Water. Mr. Joseph Foster, than whom no man is better qualified for the ta^k, has, fii the sumptuous, the regal volume before us, produced, assuredly, the finest, the most masterly, the most carefully aiTanged and best thought-out Peerage and Baronetage of the age. Those who know (and what genealogist does not ?) his important volumes of county pedigrees, which have been favourably noticed in these pages, must have been stnick Avith the admirable manner in which they were prepared, and have felt how thoroughly competent the compiler was for the task. The present work, gigantic in its proportions, is a fitting continuation of his labours, and will remain a lasting monument to his judgment and skill.