396 THE ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL publications is surprising and the insertion of friends of our youth, such as Horace and Lucretius, is perhaps unnecessary. The plans are, generally, obscure. Thrown on the screen and explained by the lecturer, they were probably adequate; but in a new edition they could be greatly improved by the insertion of a few place- names, and the use of clearer boundary marks. The plans of the ideal village in the last chapter suggest a forbidding rectangularity such as that of the second book of Euclid, which, it is clear from the letter- press, is not the author's ideal. This chapter, in which Mr. Peake describes the English village of his dreams and hopes, demands a paragraph to itself. Just as one can read the book as a whole and give unqualified praise to the clear and careful way in which the evolution of the township is traced, without accepting the underlying theory of the Nordic Overman, so the last chapter commands the sympathy, not only of the optimist, but of the pessimist. The latter, however, sadly recognizes that mechanical science, with its ruthlessness and its scorn of the functions of the indi- vidual worker, is the foe of much that is best in our civilization, and that the motor-car and motor-lorry will probably exercise a centralizing effect which may prevent Mr. Peake's dream of a self-sufficient village community from attaining reality. The doctor, the butcher, and the baker will prefer to use their motors to work large tracts of country from one of the larger market-towns, such as Leighton Buzzard, Devizes, or, may one add, Newbury ; the farm labourers will be taken in lorries to their daily labours; at nightfall the village will, in the main, become a place of rest for pensioners with a taste for gardening, parsons, poets, and antiquaries. C. T. FLOWER.

The Saxon Bishops of Wells: a Historical Study in the Tenth Century. iQI8, pp. 70. 5J. St. Oswald and the Church of Worcester. 1919, pp.52. $s. 6d. Somerset Historical Essays. 1921, pp. viii + 160. io.r. 6d. By J. ARMITAGE ROBINSON, D.D., F.B.A., Dean of Wells. London, British Academy (Milford). The six essays contained in the last of these three publications can be taken together with the two papers which preceded them as a series of contributions to the history of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries in the west of England. Beginning with the foundation of the see of Wells in 909 or 910, and ending with the exile of Bishop Jocelin in 1209, our Fellow the dean of Wells has subjected a con- siderable number of documents to a patient and searching criticism, and has arrived at conclusions, interesting in themselves, which involve a good deal of revision of such works of reference as Hardy's edition of Le Neve's Fasti. The Saxon Bishops of Wells is mostly concerned with the criticism of the lists of bishops to be found in MS. C.C.C. Cam- bridge, 183, as compared with those in MSS. Cotton, Vespasian, B. 6, and Tiberius, B. 5 and with the evidence of chronicles and charters. It makes out a very good case for placing Athelm's translation to Canterbury on the death of Archbishop Plegmund in 933 instead of the accepted date 914. The dean of Wells, agreeing with Mr. G. J. Turner, accepts as genuine the charter (Birch, Cart. Saxon. 641) which REVIEWS 397 fixes the coronation of Athelstan on 4 September, 9251 and makes Athelm one of the bishops assisting. Accordingly, he places Athelm's death on 8 January, 926. Incidentally he discusses the date of St. Dunstan's birth, and shows that it is almost impossible to accept 925, providing at the same time a reasonable explanation of the appearance of that date in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The succession of the bishops is brought down to the death of bishop Brihtwig in 33 St. Oswald and the Church of Worcester controverts the view that there was a Church of St. Mary at Worcester, in addition to the cathedral church of St. Peter, before St. Oswald's time. Here, as in the previous paper, the argument rests on the evidence of charters, in the criticism of which the author makes no claim to be an expert. It can only be said that in both cases he seems to prove his point, and perhaps the more convincingly because he appeals to considerations which are within the comprehension of the unlearned, rather than to the judgement of the ' Phronimos'. The first of the Essays is a close examination of William of Malmes- bury's De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae as compared with the so-called third edition of his Gesta Regum. The result of this is an almost conclusive proof that the text of the former work has been largely interpolated after its author's death, and that the more mythical parts of it can be safely rejected as late additions. The second essay, on The Saxon Abbots of Glastotibury, compares William of Malmes- bury's list of the early abbots with that in MS. Cotton, Tiberius, B. 5, which is regarded as a tenth-century compilation from tombs and martyrological entries, and therefore less trustworthy, as regards the earlier abbots, than the list made by William from the evidence of the ' charters. The next essay, on The First Deans of Wells, deals with the trans- ference of the see to Bath by bishop John of Tours, and the refounding of the chapter of Wells about 1140 by bishop Robert on the model of that of Salisbury with a dean instead of a provost. The history of the deans is continued in 1213, and relates the contest between the houses of Wells, Glastonbury, and Bath for the right of electing the bishop. Early Somerset Archdeacons, the fourth essay, supersedes Hardy's imperfect list by a carefully constructed table, mainly from the docu- ments included in the Calendar of the MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of Wells published by the Historical MSS. Commission. The puzzling description of the same person alternately as archdeacon of Wells and archdeacon of Bath is duly noted and explained. The last two essays are on Peter of Blots and Bishop Jocelin and the Interdict. The former of these maintains the substantial authenticity of Peter's Letters as against the view of the late Mr. W. G. Searle, and incidentally corrects Le Neve's list of the archdeacons of London. The latter shows from the evidence of the Patent and Close Rolls that Jocelin and his brother Hugh, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, stayed by King John until his personal excommunication made it impossible to do so any longer. It may be said in conclusion that these essays are not only of permanent value, but are very pleasant reading, and not least because 398 THE ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL of the modesty of their tone and the deference shown to earlier scholars whose mistakes they correct. The author and the British Academy are both to be congratulated on the series. CHARLES JOHNSON.

Uancien art Serbe: les fcglises. By Gabriel Millet, izf'xio; pp. 208. Paris ; E. de Boccard. 1919. The distinguished author of this book, well known for his studies on the monastery of Daphni, the churches at Mistra, and the Greek school of church building in Byzantine times, introduces us in this finely illustrated volume to the attractive field of Serbian architecture. The material is treated with the lucidity to which readers of M. Millet's archaeological work are accustomed. The first part, introductory in character, gives a summary of Serbian history and civilization, a general survey of religious foundations in the country, and an appreciation of Serbian art, with an investigation of its origins and of the influences affecting its development. In the second part the chief buildings are passed in review and critically examined. The Serbs, a pastoral people, crossed the Danube in the seventh century, and were converted to Christianity in the ninth. Over- shadowed by the Bulgarians in the tenth century, and subjected to the Byzantine Empire during part of the eleventh, they did not fulfil their destiny until the time of Stefan Nemanya, who reigned in the latter part of the twelfth century, and died in A. D. 1200 in the newly- founded Serb monastery of Chilandari on Mount Athos, where his son, under the religious name of Sava, was at the time a monk. The series of the greater Serbian churches opened with Stefan Nemanya's founda- tion at Studenitza, and continued with slight intermission until the final Turkish triumph of 1459. The geographical position of Serbia brought its people into relation with Dalmatia and Italy on the west, and on the south with Salonika and Byzantium, by way of the Morava and Vardar valleys. The character of Serbian art is due to the skilful manner in which the Latin and Byzantine elements were taken up into a new art, eclectic, but following the lines marked out for it by the national genius. The economic basis for the great expansion of building activity in the reign of Milutin (1282-1321) is to be sought in the exploitation of the mines of Novo Brodo and Yanyevo, which made the Serbian kings wealthy, and led to important commerce with Dalmatia and Italy, chiefly through the port of Ragusa, Without the material resources thus placed at their command the numerous monasteries with their graceful and often sumptuous churches could never have been founded. Serbian churches fall into three main groups: (i) those erected by Stefan Nemanya and his successors down to the close of the thirteenth century in the north and west of the country ; (ii) those built by Milutin, Dushan, and others from that period down to the last quarter of the four- teenth century in the region, partly in the upper Vardar valley, under Byzantine artistic influence; (iii) the foundations of the Despot Lazar, his widow Militza, and his son Stephen before the disaster of Kossovo, and afterwards, in the respite of half a century afforded the Serbs by the Turkish defeat at the hands of Timur at Angora. The centre of