Notices of New Publications.
The high reputation of Professor Willis will suffer no diminution from the present work; on the contrary, the accurate research shewn in it, and the careful application of the information thereby acquired to the practical purpose of elucidating the history of this interesting Cathedral, would be sufficient to establish the reputation of an author previously unknown. It is not too much to say that we here have the first step towards a real history of architecture in England. Many attempts have indeed been previously made, and some of them with great pretension; an approximation to the truth has doubtless of late years been obtained, but no one hitherto has established the leading facts on the same firm and secure basis that we here find them fixed. Compared with this standard, all previous writers have been floundering in the dark, blind leaders of the blind; even the best informed differing strangely from each other as to the precise periods at which the principal changes took place, and no one feeling confidence in the results obtained from such uncertain premises. Professor Willis leaves no room for doubt: he demonstrates beyond all question every fact which he wishes to establish. It happens fortunately that the exact history of this celebrated building can be better ascertained from cotemporary authorities, than perhaps any other, and the acuteness with which the minute descriptions of Gervase and others are applied to the existing structure, is beyond all praise. After following the Professor in his comparison of the building itself with the details given by the chronicler, we feel that we can without hesitation affix a positive date to every stone of the church.
The work must become a standard of reference for all who wish to obtain accurate information on the very interesting subject of the progress of the art of building in England. It begins from the earliest period, and the first chapter relates "the history of the building, and the events which bore upon its construction, arrangement, and changes, in the words of the original authors as much as possible." The translation is remarkably close, and preserves all the spirit and life of the originals; those who had the pleasure of hearing that of Gervase read at the meeting at Canterbury, will not easily forget the thrilling effect which it produced, the rapturous manner with which it was received, or the clear and lucid explanations by which it was accompanied. The whole of these are here embodied, and the large diagrams which were hung over the Professor's head, and so often referred to in that interesting lecture, are here also presented to us and very clearly engraved, though on a small scale, with the date of the year when each part was built.
To those who were not fortunate enough to be present at the Canterbury
