SHORT NOTICES July of the Merchant Adventurers and Hostmen's Company of Newcastle are deservedly known. The contents of the present volume form excellent popular lectures and are well illustrated by maps. H. H. E. C. The eighteenth volume of the third series of the Archaeologist Aeliana (Published by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Kendal, 1921) is a good average volume of an excellent publication. It contains a careful report, in which the secretary takes stock of the society's position, mentioning the successful protest against the removal of the Scotch-gate at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and reprinting the statutes of the society. There are eight short papers, two of them well illustrated by views in the text, and one long one of eighty-two pages. This is a comprehensive article ' On the Books of the Companies of Glovers and Skinners of Newcastle- upon-Tyne ' ; the author, Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson, is ' aware of the small historical value of such records ', but he has treated them scientifically ; and he traces the gradual decline and eventual disappearance of the gilds by their orders, varying in date from 1436-7 to 1765, with extracts from account-books of 1636-1749. His lists will be of some value to local genealogists. In no. iii he revises Dr. Kaine's account of Archbishop Savage's visitation of the diocese of Durham. Of the other papers three are concerned with pedigrees ; the Fenwicks of Brenckley are of some impor- tance, and a branch of them held Bitchfield for a time (no. vii) ; the inter- marriages among them are numerous even for a north-country family. Mr. Bosanquet offers a plausible restoration of a fragmentary inscription at Hexham, [Disci]P AVGUST[orum milite]S Cott. I [F. Vardullo]RVM (X) [C. E. eq. quibus] PKAEES[t Pub. Calpur[NIVS VIC[tor tr]. Mr. James Hodgson records some recollections of the helpless pastoral poet, John Cunningham, by his patroness, Mrs. Ann Slack, and addsdeveral interesting letters which correct the Dictionary of National Biography. The other two items are in the form of lectures. Professor Mawer discusses ' Early Northumbrian History in the light of its Place-Names '. As in his book, he is, like earlier etymologists, disposed to be too dogmatic. ' There are no traces of place-names of purely Latin origin ' ; but surely it is going too far to say that ' Chester ' and ' Street ' were brought by the Angles from their old homes on the Continent. He is better on instances of cor- ruption, such as Wansbeck (from Wanspike), and Ushaw (from Ulveskahe), but he is perhaps too anxious to find Scandinavian elements in the place- names, though he allows some of them, such as Swainston and Blakiston, to be derived from personal names which had become ' naturalized '. Mr. Hamilton-Thompson's ' Characterizations of the Parish Churches of Northumberland ' is a particularly lucid and judicious sketch with a good series of views, and he seems to establish for the ecclesiastical architecture of the county a stronger position than he actually claims for it. H. E. D. B. The Rev. H. D. A. Major, Principal of Ripon Hall, has produced a short historical sketch of the little parish of Copgrove in the West Riding, of which he was formerly rector. The' Memorials of Copgrove (Oxford : Blackwell, 1922) ' is intended not primarily for archaeologists, but for the
