Abstract
(1) Mr. Varley's volume is one of the excellent series of the Cambridge County Geographies. The general plan of the series is followed, successive chapters being devoted to different aspects of the county, relief, geology, hydrography, natural history, climate, people, place-names, occupations, history, architecture, and so forth, concluding with a gazetteer of towns and villages. There are a number of illustrations and coloured oro-graphical and geological maps. The maps include the Isle of Wight, which otherwise is outside the scope of the book, but unfortunately they stop short at the county boundaries. This seems to be a needless curtailment of their usefulness. The volume is an excellent handbook to the county and is full of information, but it certainly would be improved by an index. Two criticisms may be offered, which apply rather to the scheme of the series than to this useful volume in particular. The treatment of England by counties can never be completely satisfactory, as it inevitably cuts across geographical regions. Thus the omission of eastern Wiltshire cuts out part of the Avon valley, while the inclusion of the northern slope of the Hampshire downs includes a fragment of country that would be better treated with Berkshire. The other criticism refers to the use of the term geography, as applicable to the book. Since the series claims to be geographical, there should be more correlation of various distributions than is actually the case in the pages; causal effects are not sufficiently emphasised. This is particularly the case with regard to the distribution of population and the sites of towns.
(1) Hampshire.
By T. Varley. (Cambridge County Geographies.) Pp. xi + 212. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1922.) 3s. 6d. net.
(2) Munster.
Pp. xii + 176.
(3) Ulster.
Pp. xii + 186. (The Provinces of Ireland.) Edited by George Fletcher. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1921.) 6s. 6d. net each.
(4) A History of the County of Bedford.
(The Victoria History of the Counties of England.) Part 1, Geology and Palæontology. Pp. 36. (London: Constable and Co. Issued in parts, 1920.) 3s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
(1) Hampshire (2) Munster (3) Ulster (4) A History of the County of Bedford. Nature 110, 339 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110339a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110339a0