Family and inheritance. Rural society in Western Europe 1200–1800

JOSEPH LAWSON, Progress in Pudsey, [facsimile of 1887 ed.], Firle, Sussex, Caliban Books, 1978, 8vo, pp. 154, £7.50. GEORGE STURT, The Bettesworth book, [facsimile of 1902 ed.], Firle, Sussex, Caliban Books, 1978, 8vo, pp. xv, 325, £7.50. GEORGE STURT, William Smith, potter andfarmer: 1790-1858, [facsimile of 1919 ed.], Firle, Sussex, Caliban Books, 1978, 8vo, pp. x, 230, illus., £7.50. GEORGE WALKER, The costume of Yorkshire, [facsimile of 1814 ed.], Firle, Sussex, Caliban Books, 1978, 8vo, pp. 100, illus., £10.00. To make available again important yet little-known social documents at present out of print is an excellent service to historians and others. Caliban Books are doing just that. They now present four new titles to their growing series of facsimile reprints. Joseph Lawson (1821-?) published in 1887 his Letters to the young on progress in Pudsey during the last sixty years, and it gives a vivid account of life in a Yorkshire township in the 1820s, with special reference to the textile industry. George Bourne (alias Sturt) wrote a biography of his grandfather, William Smith, and in so doing produced a graphic description of country life in the nineteenth century. Smith of Hampshire was a potter as well as a farmer, and so fascinating details of each occupation fill the book. It was first published in 1919. The same author published in 1901 The Bettesworth book, and the second edition of 1902 is reprinted here. Again, there is a classic account of country life, in this case towards the end of the nineteenth century, and concerning an agricultural labourer. It, therefore, contains details of working and social life that are difficult to find elsewhere. The show-piece of this series so far is Walker's book depicting country trades and pursuits, together with militia uniforms. The original edition appeared in 1814 and the second, a limited one, in 1885. There are forty coloured plates, excellently reproduced, each with a brief legend. The publishers in particular are to be congratulated on an elegant product at a reasonable price. It is to be hoped that the editors, who also deserve high praise, will continue to extend their list with source-books such as these that provide building material for social and economic history. The medical historian will welcome them, for they can add considerably to his knowledge of nineteenth-century rural and industrial society against which medicine evolved and was practised.