Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/451

1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 443 opinion, but it is generally agreed that, as Goldast said in 1612, it was written before Otto the Great's invasion of Italy in 951. How much earlier, is still disputed. In 1895 Father Lapotre, a critic of rare gifts, advocated a date not long before the death of the Emperor Lambert in 898 ; and the hypothesis is in many ways attractive. Signor Zucchetti, however, thinks that the mistakes in matters of fact which disfigure the last part of the Libellus require us to postulate an interval of many years before it was written. He therefore reverts cautiously to the opinion of Goldast, which has been maintained by most German scholars. According to this, the treatise was written somewhere between 940 and 950. But there is still room for an intermediate hypothesis, which was suggested by M. J. Gasquet in 1888, that it belongs to some time in the first thirty years of the century. The new editor has not settled the question : for our part, we incline to the view of M. Gasquet. Signor Zucchetti's edition is very carefully prepared, and his abundant notes show wide reading and discriminating judgement. They supply most valuable illustration of the materials available to the authors. Signor Zucchetti has collected in his preface a large number of specimens of" Benedict's grammatical peculiarities ; it may be regretted that he did not complete his excellent work by the addition of a glossary. We are also sorry that he has omitted the numeration of chapters given by Pertz, for these have been constantly referred to. Reginald L. Poole. The Burford Records, a Study in Minor Town Government. By R. H. Gretton, M.A., M.B.E. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1920.) The community of Burford, apparently for the convenience of Robert Fitz-Hamon, its post-Domesday manorial lord, rather than from any aspiration towards enfranchisement on the part of its purely agricultural inhabitants, received before 1107 a' charter granting it a gild-merchant and many of the liberties customary in the setting up of a borough. Lying as it does beside the Windrush, and connected by various ancient roads with Northleach, Stow, Cirencester, and Oxford, with their developing markets, it is probable that the non-resident magnate, lord of Cardiff and Tewkesbury, may have been led to imagine a profitable future for this remote little border possession of his, which, however, it was not destined to fulfil. Owing to this peculiar circumstance, apart from its many well- known attractions, the history of Burford distinctly called for such industrious enthusiasm as the author has here happily devoted to the task of clearing up its rather tangled problems. On the whole the story does come out feature by feature distinct ; although we may be surprised at the outset (p. 6) by the statement that Fitz-Hamon ■ incorporated Burford in the Honour of Gloucester — the most valuable part of his new possessions '. This honour came into being about 1121, having been con- stituted by King Henry for his son Robert, when he made him earl of Gloucester and had given him Mabel Fitz-Hamon to wife ; or fourteen years after Fitz-Hamon's decease. It is likewise a misunderstanding to give (p. 6, n. 2) Gloucester Castle as a residence to Fitz-Hamon. The honour of Gloucester and the earldom by no means included that royal