NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
When we consider the amount of rubbish which is annually printed in the shape of three volume novels, and the amount of time which is spent, or rather wasted, in the production of such ephemeral literature, it is refreshing to meet with an author who deals with facts instead of fancies, who rescues from oblivion scraps of local history, and places on record something that is worth reading and worth remembering.
What pleasanter occupation for a country clergyman, or indeed for any clergyman, in his leisure hours, than the collection of materials for a history of his own parish? To dip into 'Domesday,' pore over parish registers, consult county histories, and generally to collect and sift all sorts of information from all sorts of sources, must surely be one of the most agreeable modes of "driving dull care away," to say nothing of the utility of the work when finally completed.
Such an undertaking is not to be hastily dealt with or produced; and indeed of this class of work it may be said that the longer the author is engaged upon it the better it is likely to be. Ten years have elapsed since the late Sir Roderick Murchison, dealing with the "Geological Structure of the parish of Harting," penned the first thirteen pages of the present volume, and Mr. Gordon tells us (p. 230) that the preparation of his own share of the work has been "a pleasant holiday task for the last thirteen years." He calls it "a humble attempt to describe a corner parish in West Sussex of 7832 acres (nearly thirteen square miles), interesting in its flora and fauna, which, from their sheltered position and the variety of soil and climate, are unusually fertile, and also to unfold its remoter history, and incidentally that of its immediate neighbourhood."
