“Mr. Thornely’s book will be eagerly sought by all lovers of monumental brasses.”—London Quarterly Review.
“Local archæologists will give a hearty welcome to this book.”—Manchester Guardian.
“Mr. Thornely has produced a very interesting volume, as he has not only figured nearly every monumental brass within the two counties to which he has confined his researches, but in every case he has given a description also, and in some instances the genealogical information is of a high order of value.”—The Tablet.
“A well got-up and profusely-illustrated volume.”—Manchester Examiner and Times.
“This book is wonderfully readable for its kind, and is evidently the result of careful and painstaking labour. The chapters are well condensed, nowhere burdened with verbiage, yet sufficiently full to serve the purpose in view. The illustrations of the various brasses are exceedingly well done, and add much value and interest to the work, which should become popular in Lancashire and Cheshire.”—Warrington Guardian.
“‘The Monumental Brasses of Lancashire and Cheshire,’ with some account of the persons represented, by James L. Thornely, is a volume of great antiquarian interest to residents in the two counties. It has been a labour of love, and embodies the results, as the author remarks in his preface, of many pleasant hours during a series of pilgrimages to ancient churches and sweet communings with a stately past. The plates in the volume are reproductions of pen and ink drawings made from ‘rubbings,’ most of which were taken by the author, and the descriptive letterpress relates to the ancestry of many old Lancashire and Cheshire families, and is full of antiquarian and historical interest.”—Liverpool Daily Post.
“The volume is excellently printed and finished, and its production reflects great credit on its publishers—the Hull Press.”—Hull Daily News.
“The author’s artistic drawings of the brasses he describes, as may be imagined, embrace numbers of curious outlines, from the rudest to many of elegant design. Each is accompanied by as copious a description as it seems possible to obtain, the work on the whole covering over three hundred pages of well-executed letterpress. Only five hundred copies have been printed, and these have been nearly all taken up by subscribers.”—Chester Courant.
“Messrs. William Andrews & Co., of Hull” (“Logroller” writes in the Star), “seem to be producing some handsome antiquarian books. The latest that has come to me is an account of ‘The Monumental Brasses of Lancashire and Cheshire,’ by Mr. James L. Thornely. Brass-rubbing is a most fascinating enthusiasm. ‘Wouldst thou know the beauty of holiness?’ asks Lamb. ‘Go alone on some week-day, borrowing the keys of good Master Sexton, traverse the cool aisles of some country church.’ Those cool aisles are the workshop of the brass-rubber. While he kneels over his spread sheet of paper, and diligently plies his ‘heel-ball,’ the afternoon lights dapple the old stones, and country sounds and scents steal in to keep him company at his solitary task. You see I also have been in Arcady. Mr. Thornely is not only interested in his subject himself, but he has the gift of imparting his interest to others. His accounts of his various brasses and the personages they commemorate are simple and clear, and marked by a literary touch too rare in the treatment of such themes.”