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Townsend : A
History of Abingdon 205
that a is, dependent house. It would have been worth while to seek out
the original, though Green does not indicate the source, if only to read the
very characteristic visions and retribution with which the story closes. It may
be found in Bartholomew of Pisa's Liber
Conformitatum^ and appears as an
appendix in Mr. A. G. Little's recent edition of the De Jldventu Fratrum
Minorum in dngliam, or, Englished, in Father Cuthbert's translation of the
same work.
The history of the great abbey forms a large and interesting part of the
book, though a few of Mr. Townsend's obiter dicta concerning monasticism
might give a captious critic opportunities. Medieval monasticism knew
nothing of the 'cell' in the modern sense. It is therefore unwise to say
that Blaecman built a church 'with monastic cells.' Freeman (Norman
Conquest^ iv. 143-4, n.) and the Abingdon Chronicle (Rolls Series), 1.474, are
c
cited as authorities, but Freeman, translating the chronicler's phrase ad
monachorum formam habitaculorum '
as '
buildings of a monastic pattern,'
avoided the trap into which the present author falls.
Mr. Townsend's book is full of patient work, interesting
detail and an
enthusiasm which goes far to excuse both some amateurishness of treatment,
and a few easily remediable defects such as those mentioned above.
* L'amour est la veritable clef de 1'histoire,' said M. Sabatier. If so, Mr.
Townsend will not find many closed doors.
The facsimiles of documents, which have been chosen in place of more
conventional illustrations, are admirable. TT
HILDA JOHNSTONE.
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FOR
THE YEAR 1908. In two Volumes. Vol. I. 8vo. Pp. 539.
Washington : Government Printing Office. 1909.
So numerous are the papers and so extensive the material in the yearly
report of the American Historical Association that its publication (usually
later than its nominal date) loses nothing by keeping. The present volume
registers discussions on the relations of geography to history, on teaching
methods, on research in English history and on American and colonial and
revolutionary history. Special articles also deal with census records as
historical and economic data, and with the American newspapers of the
eighteenth century as sources of information. Citations establish the deep
interest of contemporary journals, which are not only stocked with domestic
fact from 1704 onward, but reach the tragic point in the Revolution time.
Perhaps one chief characteristic of such evidence scarcely receives due
attention ; that is the fact that its short views, its day to day register, and its
futility in foresight, emphasise the occurrence of the unexpected in the
actual course of events.
History in this diary form, in which to-day's fact is not coloured by
to-morrow's result, probably has possibilities far beyond current estimates
of historical method. Most writers of history deal with the beginning as
a part of the end. The other way about, where to-morrow is not assumed,
has much to say for itself, and in that mode newspaper evidence is invalu-
able, if not supreme.