Guide to Ancient Monuments

Abstract

MB. OBMSBY-GORE'S promise on relinquishing office as First Commissioner of Works to complete the manuscript of that part of the official guide to ancient monuments then in hand, has now been redeemed by the publication of the volume covering East Anglia and the Midlands (“Illustrated Regional Guides to Ancient Monuments under the Ownership or Guardianship of H.M. Office of Works”, vol. 3, East Anglia and Midlands. By the Right Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore. London: H.M. Stationery Office. Pp. 72. Is. net). In method of treatment of both the prehistoric and the historic sections this volume follows the plan of its predecessors; but matter of general application in the various periods, which has been given in the earlier volumes, has been omitted. Although it may be agreed that nothing can make a stronger appeal to the historic imagination than Stonehenge and Avebury, which have already been described, the present volume in no other respect falls below those already issued in the importance and interest of the monuments which it includes. As a source of information relating to the industries of neolithic man, Grime's Graves is without rival; while the circle of Arbor Low in Derbyshire, and the megalithic barrows of the Cotswolds each hold a place in British prehistory, of which the importance needs no emphasis. It may be noted, however, that the latter are counted the oldest monuments under the guardianship of the Office of Works. Verulamium, since Dr. Mortimer Wheeler's excavations, is unique both as a British and a Romano-British site. In historic periods the abbeys of Shropshire and the castles, such as Framlingham, stand out among medieval buildings; while Kirby Hall, Northants, is one of the most important of the large country houses of Elizabethan and Jacobean times. For the first time, historic buildings belonging to the Crown appear. These are the Tower, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace, and the Chapter House of Westminster. Of the various periods into which Engl ish pre -history and history fall, the Saxon alone does not appear among the historic monuments under protection.