Systematic study has been further facilitated and stimulated by the organization of general or more restricted loan exhibitions, of which the most recent of importance were the series of university portraits held at Oxford in the years 1904-5-6, the show of early English portraiture arranged by the Burlington Club in 1909, and the Scottish collection brought together at Glasgow last year. And the development of photography and the introduction of cheap reproductive methods have not only added greatly to the means of comparison available, but have extended the use of portrait illustration until it has become a definite and almost indispensable adjunct to history and biography.

As already indicated, the Oxford exhibitions were amongst the most important collections of the kind that have been brought together. Confined, with a few exceptions, to works owned locally, the 570 portraits then shown were of course limited in scope to those of people more or less connected with learning and associated with Oxford. But if this limited the interest and deprived the exhibitions of the richness of contrast possessed by collections embracing a more varied field, it concentrated attention upon the great part played by Oxford in the public affairs of England. These portraits were all described, and many were illustrated, in the memorial catalogues issued at the time, and now Mrs. Reginald Lane Poole has published, through the Clarendon Press, the first volume of a work in which all the portraits belonging to the university, colleges, city and county of Oxford are to be catalogued. The undertaking is an extensive one, and involves an amount of careful study and exact research of which o those who have had some experience of similar work have any idea; but Mrs. Poole's courage and patience have been equal to the long strain, and the volume just issued gives a detailed and elaborate account of the portraits in the University Collections and the Town and County Halls.

In an introduction Mrs. Poole tells the story of the foundation and growth of the Bodleian Collection (1602), the Ashmolean Museum (1683), and the University Galleries (1845), and indicates the causes which have given each of these collections a special character. The catalogue, which is divided into sections dealing with the separate institutions, each arranged chronologically, has been carried out on the best lines, and gives, in addition to short biographies, a concise description of each portrait, with its dimensions, a statement as to when it was acquired and how, mention of the chief reproductions, and now and then a note about other versions. Reproductions of some eighty portraits are given, and, as those illustrated in the catalogues of the Oxford Exhibitions (very few of which are given over again) are indicated in the descriptions by an asterisk, the work when completed will form a very complete and useful record of all portraits in Oxford and of where reproductions of the more important are to be found. The volume is an admirable piece of work. Mrs. Poole deserves great credit for the adequate accomplishment of a difficult and rather thankless task. JAMES L CAW.

COMPANION TO ROMAN HISTORY. By H. Stuart Jones, M.A. Pp. xii, 472. With 80 plates, 65 other illustrations, and 7 maps. Demy 8vo. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1912. 15s. net.

THE task of producing a comprehensive handbook of this sort was anything but easy. It has been discharged with a thoroughness and success that call for the warmest commendation. Mr. Stuart Jones's qualifications for the undertaking were, of course, exceptional. An excellent scholar and a highly competent archaeologist, he had the added advantage of having served for some time as Director of the British School at Rome, and of having gained in this way an invaluable acquaintance with local conditions and with actual remains. As a result, he has given us a manual which is far in advance of anything of the kind that has yet seen the light, and which is not likely to be superseded for many a year to come.

An introductory chapter summarizes the present position of our knowledge regarding the prehistoric problems connected with the Italian peninsula, sketches the development of the town and land system, describes the growth of Rome itself from its first beginnings to the days of its greatest prosperity, and concludes with a succinct account of the roads and searoutes that furnished the main arteries for trade and intercourse under Republic and Empire. Then follow 130 pages devoted to 'Architecture.' The allowance may seem generous, but every inch of the space is required to accommodate the mass of material that is grouped together under this one general heading. The various types of structure are dealt with separately, Vitruvian lore being aptly illuminated by discussion of the more important surviving examples. To those who have not visited the Saalburg Museum, the most novel section of the chapter on 'War' will be that which treats of Roman artillery. Besides this, however, it contains much that is not accessible in equally convenient form anywhere else. One cannot help regretting that the organization of the army had to be dismissed so briefly.

The subjects of the remaining chapters are 'Religion,' 'Production and Distribution,' 'Money,' 'Public Amusements,' and Art.' Of these, that upon 'Money' is the slightest; it should have given references to Haeberlin's Corpus of Aes Grave and to Willers's Geschichte der römischen Kupferprägung, the latter of which has rather upset orthodox views as to the arrangement made circa 15 B.C. between Augustus and the Senate. The chapter on 'Production and Distribution,' on the other hand, is among the best in the volume. There are few indeed who will not learn a great deal from what it has to say of agriculture, of industry and commerce, of handicrafts and manufactures.

Mr. Stuart Jones writes clearly and well, so that the volume is readable in spite of the closeness with which the information is necessarily packed. In his selection of illustrations he has displayed both catholicity of taste and soundness of judgment. It is a pity that the reproductions are not always satisfactory. The tombstone of the centurion M. Caelius, for example, on p. 205, is particularly disappointing. Improvement in such details may be effected when the book is reprinted, as it is quite certain to be ere long.

GEORGE MACDONALD.

THE HISTORY OF CRIEFF FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DAWN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. By Alexander Porteous, F.S.A.Scot. With Introduction by the Rev. W. P. Paterson, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh. Pp. xviii, 423. With numerous Illustrations. 4to. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. 1912. 21s. net.

WHEN it is said that in this profusely illustrated and handsome volume the portraits of the first town councillors of Crieff are the product of a photographic studio, not much will probably be expected in the way of historic annals. And yet this town on the Highland border, chiefly known to outsiders as a popular health resort, though it did not become a police burgh governed by its own magistrates till 1864, had its origin in a period too remote to be definitely traced. The story of the town and its neighbourhood is worth telling, and has been well told by Mr. Porteous, who begins his narrative by giving some account of the Roman remains discovered in the district, the roads and camps which are still visible, and he likewise alludes to the invasion of Strathearn by Egfrid of Northumbria, then marching to meet his fate at Nechtanmere.

Coming to the twelfth century, when charters make their appearance, the earls of Strathearn are identified as lords of the soil and founders of the abbey of Inchaffrey. In one of the abbey charters the name of Crieff is found on record for the first time, the 'parson of Cref' being one of the witnesses. It is thus as a kirk town, the centre of a parish, that the place comes into notice, but any ecclesiastical importance which may have attached to it in the early centuries was somewhat lessened by annexation of the parsonage to the Chapel Royal of Stirling some sixty years before the Reformation. Subsequent to the Reformation a proposal to make Crieff the seat of a presbytery did not receive effect, and since that time the church history of the town and parish is in the main uneventful, though the ministerial roll contains the names of some men of note. Principal Cunningham, who wrote the History of the Church of Scotland, was minister of the parish between 1845 and 1886, and was succeeded by the present Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh University, Dr. Paterson, who contributes an appreciative introduction to this volume. Dr. Thomas M'Crie, son of the author of the Life of Knox, and himself a prolific writer on various subjects, was for four years an Anti-burgher minister in Crieff.

The old statistical account of the parish was written by Robert Stirling, who became minister in 1770, when the population of the town and parish was under 2000. Alluding to the primitive customs of the period, he quaintly attributes a rise in church-door collections to the effect of the increasing luxury and vanity of the lower classes.' About the year 1778 female servants and others of that rank began first to wear ribbons, and, conscious of attracting superior notice, they also displayed greater charity.

In the latter days of heritable jurisdictions, and succeeding to the hereditary stewards and mairs of Strathearn, whose open-air courts were held at a place called the 'Skath of Crieff,' owners of no fewer than three baronies had each a share in the judicial supervision of the town. The Drummond family ruled over two-thirds of it, and in 1685 they built a tolbooth as a