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The biographical material, based only on published sources, is presented as an undiscriminating year-by-year survey; and there is little attempt to convey Payne Knight's personality or to recreate his family background, upbringing, friendships or life-style. Such 'minutiae of formal biography' take second place to the discussion of Payne Knight's writings, which are analysed at some length. However, while we can sympathize with Mr. Messmann's lament that 'the cumulative effect of [Payne Knight's] verbal meanderings is frequently more than mildly soporific', his own apparent lack of commitment to any of the topics which inspired his subject, and his consequent unwillingness to formulate any independent judgements, make for tedious reading. It is not, for instance, very enlightening to learn (p. 167) that 'in the eyes of at least one anthro- pologist the book [The Worship of Priapus] has continuing relevance' or (p. 21) that 'in creating Downton Castle, Knight made a sound contribution to architectural evolution'. Mr. Messmann's study is unlikely to stimulate the further research his subject undoubtedly warrants. One of the most interesting and neglected aspects of Payne Knight's career-his formation of an outstanding collection of old master drawings and paintings by Rembrandt, Claude, Poussin, Elsheimer and others, and his patronage of contemporary artists including J. R. Cozens, Westall, Turner and Lawrence-is hardly mentioned in this book. Anyone looking for an introduction to Payne Knight would be wise to turn to the more lively and penetrating articles of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (Art Bulletin, XXXI (1949)) and Elizabeth Inglis Jones (National Library of Wales Journal, XV (1967-68)). The book is poorly produced, with only a 'selective index' and a ludicrously unselective-but none the less incomplete-bibliography. KIRSTINE DUNTHORNE Swansea. RURAL DISCONTENT IN NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITAIN. By J. P. D. Dunbabin. Faber and Faber, 1974. Pp. 320. £ 6.50. This is an important book which will be widely used by social historians. It is divided into two very distinct sections. The first is concerned with the protests of the first half of the nineteenth century, and here the author does little more than introduce the work of writers like David Williams, George Rude and E. J. Hobsbawm. In fact, one of the surprises of the book is that a third of it is not written by Dr. Dunbabin at all. The chapter on East Anglian rural discontent by Dr. A. J. Peacock has already been recognized as a major contribution to our understanding of the volatility of rural life in the years 1815-51. Of the agricultural labourer, Dr. Peacock writes: 'he protested all the time, most of the time very effectively indeed'. His was a world of arson, sheep stealing, animal maiming and threatening letters; and Dr. Peacock makes some interesting points about their motivation and chronology. This study, together with the researches of S. W. Amos, J. Harber and J. Archer, will destroy old notions of nineteenth-century rural society, and provide a more appropriate context for Rebecca and Captain Swing.