“Those who, either for purposes of professional study or for a cultured recreation, find it expedient to ‘do’ the English cathedrals will welcome the beginning of Bell’s ‘Cathedral Series.’ This set of books, edited generally by Mr. Gleeson White, is an attempt to consult, more closely and in greater detail than the usual guide-books do, the needs of visitors to the cathedral towns. To judge it by its first two volumes, those on Canterbury and Salisbury, the series cannot but prove markedly successful. In each book a business-like description is given of the fabric of the church to which the volume relates, and an interesting history of the relative diocese. The books are plentifully illustrated, and are thus made attractive as well as instructive. They cannot but prove welcome to all classes of readers interested either in English Church history or in ecclesiastical architecture.”—Scotsman.
“A set of little books which may be described as very useful, very pretty, and very cheap ... and alike in the letterpress, the illustrations, and the remarkably choice binding, they are ideal guides.”—Liverpool Daily Post.
“They have nothing in common with the almost invariably wretched local guides save portability, and their only competitors in the quality and quantity of their contents are very expensive and mostly rare works, each of a size that suggests a packing-case rather than a coat-pocket. The ‘Cathedral Series’ are important compilations concerning history, architecture, and biography, and quite popular enough for such as take any sincere interest in their subjects.”—Sketch.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A full account by the Rev. G. M. Livett in Archæologia Cantiana, xviii.
[2] For Norman work, see the paper by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope in Archæologia, xlix., and Mr. Ashpitel’s earlier essay in Jour. of the Brit. Archæol. Assoc., ix.
[3] Anonymous, but probably by the Rev. S. Denne and W. Shrubsole. Published in 1772; second edition, 1817.