“He has thrown together a mass of details, apparently without being able to determine which facts were worth being told, which were not, nor yet which were actually facts and which were only supposed to be such. He seems to have no well-ordered plan for presenting his material. Finally, he devotes too much space to political history, though he gives notice in his introduction that he will avoid doing so.” Ralph C. H. Catterall.
| − | Am. Hist. R. 13: 194. O. ’07. 550w. |
“The author treats the entire subject as one of development, advance, and betterment, and does it very successfully. The work is evidently based on wide reading and research.”
| + − | Dial. 42: 289. My. 1, ’07. 450w. |
“Mr. Synge’s book is exceptionally helpful in giving an idea of the occupations, the pleasures, the manners and customs of the English people of all ranks from the days of the early Britons to the present.”
| + + | Ind. 63: 699. S. 19, ’07. 410w. |
“He tells his story well. It is not a work of original research. The records are all easily accessible. It is not the first work of its kind. But it is one of the most readable books of the year thus far.”
| + + | N. Y. Times. 12: 160. Mr. 16, ’07. 290w. |
“A series of shifting society pictures not without significance and with a strong interest to all who like to delve into the quaint, queer, and curious.”