Page:The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire Part 2.djvu/814

 THE PEERAGE, BARONETAGE, and KNIGHTAGE, hy J. FOSTER. Mr. Foster, in his work, gives, in each case, not only the usual notices of the present Peer or Baronet, and of his family, but brief and well-condensed lineages, from the earliest available periods downwards; and these add immeasurably to the value and usefulness of his work ; one useful, and to us highly important, feature, being the introduction, at an enormous addition of labour, of the issue in many instances of fe- male members of the various noble families. This is but seldom given in works of this kind, but is an essential to their usefulness as books of reference, and cannot be too highly commended. Considerable pains appears to have been taken to weed out " doubtfuls " among the baronets, and these, with many spurious claims, are thrown by Mr. Foster into " chaos," from which, we opine, it will be almost a hopeless task even for the Heralds' College itself to extricate them. His avowed object has been " to produce a useful and trust- worthy book of reference, such a book as will supply, in a condensed form, the genealogical as well as bio- graphical history of the principal personages of the present day, including the near blood relations of every Peer and Baronet;" and to this end he has certainly, and with admirable results, " worked up, to an infinitely greater extent than has hitherto been attempted, the veiy numerous, and for the most y/ part uncollected, accounts of collateral descents" es- pecially relating to the Baronets ; and thus a vastly augmented value is given to his work over others. We are not, after a careful examin- ation of Mr. Foster's volume, going to affirm that it is faultless, for it woi;ld be utterly impossible to produce a work of its kind that should in every case be free from error ; but this we will say, that it seems to us to be far more accurate even in the smallest details than others, and bears evidence of scrupulous care in the verifying of dates, and in other pailiculars. The engravings, several hundred in number, are deserving of all praise Drawn in the true spirit of the earl)' heralds, and executed with strict fide- lity to heraldic details, they form a feature of Mr. Foster's work that is eminentlj' attractive, and give it a tone of originality and of pure artistic feel- ing that is quite refreshing. — The licl'uitiary.