Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/161

1922 SHORT NOTICES 153 with the new states, it found no practical expression in these early years, and rather waned than increased in strength as the century progressed. Mr. Lockey writes clearly and pleasantly, drawing his information from newspapers, books, and pamphlets and carrying the story down to 1830. E. A. B. It sometimes comes about that a criminal trial which has neither psychological nor romantic nor exceptional legal interest may excite so much public attention as to deserve an historian. Such a case is that described in a recent volume of the Notable Trials Series, the Trial of Thurtell and Hunt (Edinburgh : Hodge, 1920). The editor, Mr. Eric K. Watson, gives, besides the report of the trial, a very full and careful introduction, appendixes of subsidiary documents, specimens of ballads, and good illustrations, including some new portrait drawings of the principal characters by Mulready. Mr. Watson might with advantage have indicated more clearly how the text of his report was put together, but he has evidently spared no pains to make it good. H. A History of Scotland written by an Englishman is a rare thing, and the work of Professor C. Sandford Terry (Cambridge : University Press, 1920) may claim to be unique ; it dismisses in one sentence the action at Bannock- burn. To the country of his adoption, however, the author is always generous, although he adheres rather to the school of Andrew Lang than to that of Hume Brown. Devoid of any desire to make Scotland rival the ' constitutionalism ' of England, he has set in its true light the impor- tance of the family in Scottish history, and the excellent genealogical tables with which his book is equipped will be a welcome aid to students ; detached from many of the old ' controversies ', he has produced a narra- tive, graced by many happy phrases, which moves rapidly and smoothly, and in which the principal events stand out clear. Not all his judgements, however, will command universal agreement, and it is possible that in some instances he has been unable to interpret correctly the spirit of the Scots. Their inclination towards prelacy at the close of the seventeenth century is probably exaggerated, and the covenanters receive rather hard measure. It is scarcely fair to suggest (p. 448) that field-preachers were attracted to their uncomfortable and dangerous calling by the hope of a livelihood ; nor did any presbyterian least of all the guarded Wodrow ever suggest that Satan administered the sacrament to a presbyterian congregation (p. 434). Incidentally, the cause of the ' curates ' would have been better served by the omission of all reference to the Eeverend Gideon Penman, who was deprived for ' uncleanness and other crimes '. Dr. Terry's opinions, however, whether the reader agrees with them or not, will command respect, for his case is presented with great clarity and moderation ; but his accuracy is sometimes open to question. In the earlier part of his book, especially, errors have crept in. There was no college of St. Mary at St. Andrews (p. 96) before the sixteenth century. The act enjoining barons to send their sons to school belongs to the year 1496, not 1495 (p. 137). At the fight at Linlithgow in 1526 the Douglases and the Hamiltons were, for once, on the same side (p. 162). The portrait