Reviews

REVIEWS Kentish Sources. Some Roads and Bridges. Maidstone, Kent County Council, 1959. Pp. viii and 64. 11 hlustrations, stiff paper cover. No price (3s. 6d. post free from the County Archivist). Edited by Ehzabeth Melling, B A., Assistant Archivist, K.C.C. This is the fourth pubhcation of the Kent County Archives Office. Two of them were shght but none the less valuable guides to exhibitions iUustrating the various aspects of the Kent Archives, a thkd was a catalogue of the contents of the Office without which the student would waste a great deal of time and this, the last of the series and in many ways by far the best. Kent is foUowing the example of Essex (and there could be no better exemplar) and it is to be hoped that the good work and high standards hitherto displayed may be maintained and continued. The book is not intended for serious students of communications in the County. They probably are aware of the material available and its nature ; but even they may find, perchance, a clue to some matter that has hitherto escaped thek vigUance. It is to a wider pubhc that this volume makes its appeal, particularly those in the educational field, and that ever-growing body of the general public that takes an abiding interest in thek county history and the wider aspects of national matters beyond the county boundaries. This is a miscellany of carefuUy selected extracts from documents in the Record Office, chosen to Ulustrate some aspects of travel and communications within the county. Naturally Roads occupy the major part of its contents, but Bridges and Ferries have thek share, and an aU too brief section relates some experiences of traveUing and traveUers. It would not be fak to make any selection from its varied contents. Let it be said that the reader, whatever his tastes or locality, cannot faU to find something to his lUting, whether it be the contrariness of John Terry of Snave who made roads crooked when they might have been straight, of the famUy dissensions between Hendley of Langley and FUmer of East Sutton whose domestic differences obtruded into matters of public service. There are warnings (very modern this sounds) about people who leave thek carriages in the road aU night and accounts of how Sk Roger Twisden was able to divert the main road a httle further from his residence, and of the Snodland—Burham Ferry. Which, if Mr. BeUoc is to be beheved, carried the line of the so-caUed PUgrims' Road over the Medway. And the pictures too are 244 REVIEWS very Uluminating. Altogether it is a very fine picture of the state of Kentish travel through the ages and such is the skiU of selection that had the material been multiphed a dozen fold (as it easUy could have been) the overaU picture could not have been better. The Title " Kentish Sources " seems to imply the commencement of a series of which this is the first. If this is so, it is to be hoped that the pubhc demand for this very attractive booklet wUl encourage the production of others of a hke nature. F. C. ELLISTON-ERWOOD. Maison Dieu, Ospringe. 1958. Is. Richborough Castle. 1955. 3d. Old Soar, Plaxtol. 1953. 3d. St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. 1955. Is. 6d. Lullingstone Roman Villa. 1958. 4d. Our members' attention is drawn to five recently-pubhshed Ministry of Works Official Guide-books to Kent's ancient monuments and historic buUdings. The account of Maison Dieu, Ospringe, is written by our council member, Mr. Stuart Rigold, and by Mr. Gerald Dunning, a frequent contributor to Archozologia Cantiana. Mr. Durining's portion mainly concerns the Museum at Ospringe and he also deals with the objects in Richborough Museum in the Richborough Guide. Nobody but Colonel Meates would be a fitting author of an authoritative account of LuUingstone Roman VUla and the finds made there. Miss Margaret Wood's long service to the cause of describing medieval stone houses is sufficient recommendation for her description of Old Soar. The late Sk Alfred Clapham was responsible for the St. Augustine's Abbey booklet and the late Mr. J. P. Bushe-Fox for the story of the revealing of his own monument, Richborough Castle—two scholars who need no further testimonial to thek worth and work. L.R.A.G. 245