THE founder of the Wray family, _i.e._, the first member of it who brought the name into honourable notice, and who received a “grant of arms”--that necessary appendage to gentility--was Sir Christopher Wray, who “raised himself from nothing” to become Lord Chief Justice of England. This was in the middle of the sixteenth century. Since that time some of his descendants have received the “honour” of knighthood, some have had the baronetcy conferred upon them, whilst others have distinguished themselves either in the senate or the field, or in some other public capacity. Although the work before us is of a genealogical character, Mr. Dalton has endeavoured to amalgamate in it “many different subjects, woven together into history.” Scattered through these pages are numberless anecdotes--more or less associated with the Wrays or with the families allied to them by marriage. The first of these volumes was published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall as far back as 1880; the second volume, issued in 1881, was “privately printed.” The author’s reason for not making his second volume public he explains as follows: “I find there are so few of the many descendants of the Wrays who take any interest in their progenitors, that it would be labour lost to cast my work into the great public trough, where it could have no chance of competing with any three-volume novel, even though that same three-volume novel had no better claims to the notice of the reader than the skilfulness with which the author had managed to clothe impurity with a seeming garb of innocence.” “The Wrays of Glentworth” is far removed from the ordinary run of dry-as-dust genealogies, and will be found to contain much interesting matter. It may be added that the surplus stock has been bought over by Mr. H. W. Ball, of Barton-on-Humber, by whom they are now announced for sale. _The Order of the Coif._ By A. PULLING, Serjeant-at-Law. W. Clowes & Sons. 1884.