No More Learning

With the general sense of this-
or not, there can be no doubt that the man who had passed through three cam- that going right round the world is (or
face of youth is turned towards the East; paigns literally at the elbow of the great may be] the shortest way to where you
and so to youth may yet be applied the Turenne, and of whom Turenne had are already”; that one must become a
words Mr. Eden Philpotts wrote when declared that "he was like to be the pilgrim to cure oneself of being an exile
Swinburne passed :
best general of his time,” is to follow-most people, on reflection, will agree.
Macaulay at his worst. Moreover, Mac- Most people, too, will enjoy the epigrams
Seer before the sunrise, may there come,
Spirits of dawn to light this aching wrong
aulay must have known, and Mr. Vansit- of Mr. Chesterton. But the book seems
Cated Earth! Thou saw'st them in the fore-glow roam;
But we still wait and watch, still thirst and long.
tart could easily have discovered, that to us to lack two things essential for
the conduct described as irresolute and first-rate work: first, the art of the story-
vacillating at the time of William's teller ; and, secondly, the appearance of
invasion was the conduct of a man in a spontaneity.
66
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## p. 218 (#172) ############################################

218
No. 4400, FEB. 24, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
seven
SCOTTISH BOOKS.
History of Scotland to the Present Time. MR. ANDREW LANG's Short History of
By P. Hume Brown. Vols. I. and II. With Scotland (Blackwood) is, in all essentials, a
Maps and Illustrations. (Cambridge Uni. condensation of his four-volume 'History of
HISTORY AND GENEALOGY.
versity Press. This valuable history of Scotland from the Roman Occupation’;
The Awakening of Scotland. By W. Law Scotland has now been before the public for and as regards matters of debate and opinion
Mathieson. (Glasgow, MacLehose & Sons. )
a sufficiently long period—the first volume the same criticism might be applied to the
In “a history” of Scotland “from 1747 to was published in 1899—for its merits to smaller work that was applied to the larger.
1797” Mr. Mathieson has not a very
obtain due recognition, and the publica- David Hume, writing to Adam Smith in
interesting subject. The leading minds in tion of an illustrated edition offers an 1759, asks Smith to “flatter my vanity
Scotland Hume, Robertson, Adam Smith-opportunity for renewing the welcome we by telling me that all the godly in Scotland
for whose books Charles Lamb had such a offered it on its first appearance, and ex. abuse me for my account of John Knox
terribly “imperfect sympathy,” were doing pressing the gratification we feel at the hand and the Reformation. ” Mr. Lang has
their best to anglicize themselves, at least
some form in which it is now issued. The suffered sufficient abuse on that and other
in style and language. The sons of nobles and illustrations are a real help to the student of grounds, such as his exposure of the tyranny
gentlemen were being sent, though perhaps Scottish life and manners, though their of the Kirk and his views of the Covenanters.
not in many cases, to English public schools. cogency might have been enforced to the But he holds to his opinions ; and rightly
The mercantile classes were steadily making advantage of the ordinary reader by a few so, for they are backed up by documentary
money ; landlords were “improving " their lines of general description.
evidence, the results of original research
estates with social results which Burns
which popular" writers, truckling to un-
thought deplorable. The political repre- We take the opportunity of this reissue informed Scottish sentiment and tradition,
sentatives of the country at Westminster to make some remarks on the work as a for the most part gaily ignore. The old
were really not remarkable persons ; many whole. We feel that Prof. Hume Brown troubled subject of Mary Stuart and the
Scots got profit, most of them deservedly, out constantly under-estimates his audience. Casket Letters is here raised again, but
of Buto's administration, and shared in his A History of Scotland' is written primarily that subject, too, has already been fully
extreme unpopularity. The Moderates and for Scotsmen, but when it is published by exploited by the author, and it is only
High Flyers kept up their strife in the Kirk. an English University Press, it seems likely necessary to note that his former arguments
Wº know much about them already, from that a South British public is also intended tending to suggest that parts of the letter
Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, and Burns's verses on to read it. Yet time after time the author usually numbered II. are forged, he now
the High Flyers. We know how Scots began goes into an elaborate account of a Scottish believes to be unavailing (p. 129). In a
to take the lead in literature, philosophy, mediæval institution without alluding to the word, we have here & digest, done with
even science; we know about John Hume, well-known English one of which it is a practised skill and judgment and literary
and the Moderates, and the theatre ; we more or less faithful copy. To the mind grace, of all the author's numerous writings
know about Macpherson and Ossian, and of an unprejudiced observer it would seem that come within the scope of Scottish
* The Epigoniad which was admired by that, so far as mediæval Scotland had any history. The 'Conclusion is (shall we say
Hume.
fixed constitution at all, it was a mere copy significantly ? ) abrupt, for Mr. Lang gives
Henry Grey Graham told the story of of the English altered to fit Scottish only seven pages to the history of Scotland
everyday life with great vivacity, if not with conditions.
after Culloden ! The picturesque and the
complete sympathy. The history of the
romantic element has gone, and
Highlands receives but slight attention from Further, Prof. Hume Brown says in his pages suffice to cover the story from 1746 to
Mr. Mathieson, though the romance of the Preface that in all three volumes changes 1911 !
lost cause was living yet, in a tangle of have been introduced where later investiga- MR. ROBERT S. Rait is one of the younger
intrigues. The land question has perhaps tions rendered them necessary. But we school of historians who exemplify the
never been treated in a truly historical have sought in vain for any recognition of the best methods of modern research. An Aber-
spirit, and Mr. Mathieson has not much to important Tudor and Stuart Proclama. donian by birth, he has already proved
say about this miserably important matter. tions published at the close of 1910, under himself a sympathetic investigator in two
On the other hand, he is justifiably copious the direction of the Earl of Crawford. The volumes dealing, the one with The Scottish
about the amazing state of representation account of the history of the Scottish Privy Parliament, the other with ‘The Relations
of the people in Parliament and in the Council there given shows it as the com- between England and Scotland. '
His
municipalities; and about the political mittee of management of the governing Scotland, in “The Making of the Nations
awakening,” which was pretty violent. We faction during the long succession of Stuart Series (A. & C. Black), is an equally careful
are enabled to understand that of these minorities before the accession of James VI. piece of work, sound in historical fact,
two rather distasteful parties in the Kirk, to power, and the carefully traced-out critical and dispassionate, and dealing, for
the Moderates and the High Flyers, the analogy of the Conventions of Estates to the the most part, with just those periods in
latter had more of the right on their side. Great Councils of England and Ireland in which it is possible to trace a real advance
Scott said once, with passion, that if you mediæval times should in future prevent in the national development. A work of
anglicized the Scottish people you would any historian from saying that the distinc. this kind imposes obvious limitations on
“make them d—d bad Englishmen. ” Per. tion between them and Parliaments is the author. Given “ ample room and
haps some Englishmen may agree with him. vague. To any student of original docu- verge enough,” he would enlarge on many
À penetrating study of the Bar, the ments the fact that the records of Great important themes which can only be briefly
judges, and legal procedure would have Councils and Conventions of Estates are discussed, if referred to at all, in a
been full of matter. From the trial of kept in the Privy Council Registers, while small volume. In such circumstances the
James Stewart of the Glens, the trial of the those of Parliaments are kept on the Parlia- selection of topics must be & difficult
men accused of the murder of Sergeant ment Rolls, should be conclusive. It is, problem ; but we cannot quite approve
Dacres, and above all from the trial of however, when we come to the troublous of Mr. Rait's decision to stop short with
Katherine Nairn, the most surprising, tragic, times of Charles I. and the Commonwealth his detail at Culloden. Mr. Lang has the
and romantic pictures of Scottish life while that the history suffers most by the author's same deficiency, as we have noted above, in
Scotland was waking might be selected. oversight. It was permissible to say for his 'Short History of Scotland. Mr. Rait
The behaviour of advocates and judges, and merly that Montrose summoned a. Parlia- pleads that “the events of the last hundred
the whole process of the law, are in a high ment to meet at Glasgow in October, 1645, and fifty years. . . . defy anything like com-
degree surprising. “ What the ghost said “in his Majesty's name," but not after the pression, and, as it is impossible to say
(the ghost of the Sergeant) was given in existence of the original proclamation, under much, I have said almost nothing. " But
evidence. Patrick Ogilvy was hanged for the sign manual docketed by the Secretary of Scotland has seen a good deal of “making. "
poisoning of his brother with arsenic, though State, had been calendared. The account since the '45; and in a work of this kind it
no attempt was made to find that substance of the behaviour of Charles at Newcastle in seems to us more expedient to compress the
in the body of the decedent. Mr. Mathieson 1646 would have been amended by the very early history and extend the later.
has avoided such interesting matters; perhaps knowledge that he did actually accept the This apart, the book is wholly admirable.
his book is too short, though on his chosen Scottish conditions. Prof. Brown does not in a series of ten chapters the gradual evolu-
themes he has certainly " said what he ought profess to be an authority on the Crom- tion of the nation is traced from the Roman
to ha' said "-but then so much of what he wellian settlement of Scotland, and he invasions and the Norse settlements down-
says is already familiar. He had better frequently slips on minor points; for example, wards. The first period specially dealt with
themes in his earlier volumes, when Scotland in saying that seven Commissioners, four is that of Malcolm Canmore and his imme-
was still a nation, and a nation by no means English and three Scots, were charged with diate successors, in which the Celtic kingdom
drowsy. She was, in fact, always fairly the double function of
administering of Scotland was profoundly affected by
wide awake, though inappreciative of the justice and of visiting the universities. ” Anglo-Norman influences. Mr. Rait rightly
beauties—or opposed to the horrors of Only three of the seven sat on both Comº ascribes more influence to Margaret than to
“ Material Progress. ”
missions.
her husband, Malcolm III. , in matters that
>


## p. 219 (#173) ############################################

No. 4400, FEB. 24, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
219
66
as
8
66
as
we
ultimately affected “the real conquest of has dedicated his volume to a compatriot
England. " She objected to the Celtic whose name is familiar_to every Canadian,
Church in Scotland because of its inefficient the Duke of Argyll. Dr. Bryce, from his
MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES.
organization and the use which it made of place in that city of magical growth which
the Gaelic tongue :-
We cannot honestly say that Mrs. J. L.
forms the gate and the emporium of the
“ The Gaelic tongue was thus associated with new Canada—the thousand-mile-long wheat Story, the widow of the late Principal of
the Celtic Church, and the Queen waged a merci. field—has chosen to deal with the Scotsmen Glasgow University, has recorded much that
less and gradually successful warfare against both. of Western Canada, and, appropriately,
is worth preserving in her Early Reminiscences
The task was not accomplished in Margaret's
has dedicated his work to Lord Strathcona, (Glasgow, MacLehose). “I have taken my
lifetime, but the irrevocable step had been taken,
and she left her children to carry on her work. ” the oldest and most distinguished of all courage in my two hands,” she writes,
theo ts. -dent diand, most mements of experi- cand amenom tening to marked, though
Mr. Rait is especially successful in his ences and friendship shared in Winnipeg still trivial incidents that have occurred
treatment of the War of Independence,
which he describes as
" in the early seventies. ”
But it must not be supposed that these during a life that has been protracted
“the story of how the people of Scotland,
to the outstanding age of 83 years. ". Mrs.
deserted by the nobility, asserted their independ? notable men as Lord Strathcona, Sir John A. Story claims that
there may be
human
gentleman, and how after his defeat they
rallied Macdonald, Lord Selkirk, Sir James
Douglas, We do not deny it. For instance, she tells
again round an Anglo-Norman noble whose deed
of blood severed him from his ancient loyalty On the contrary, their scope goes beyond that, before her marriage, she inaugurated
afternoon tea
the lives of individuals, and, particularly
(then known
As regards the Reformation and the subse in the case of Mr. Campbell's volume, afterwards, her husband, the Principal,
quent ecclesiastical turmoil, Mr. Rait shares embraces the origins and histories of afterwards, her husband, the Principal,
independence of judgment with Mr. Lang, settlements, in fact, the peopling and
was "complimented” on the fact by some
and his views will doubtless provoke some development of Canada, and the genesis little to do," he replied, rather grimly.
gossiping friend. “Then my wife had very
controversy. Scotsmen do not like the and rise of its institutions. If Dr. Bryce's
The human interest comes out here in
traditional romance of their history to be work has the more exact information, Mr.
the fact that Dr. Story usually fled the after-
dissipated, and they would rather be told, Campbell's has the more imaginative insight.
noon tea ! His wife would rate him for
one recent historian tells them, that
his “inhospitable behaviour," but "in my
“after the new Church became established, The Scots Peerage. Edited by Sir James heart of hearts I honestly allowed that
toleration was generally practised,” than Balfour Paul. Vol. VIII. (Edinburgh, his actual conduct was angelic. '
This sort
be told, as Mr. Rait tells them, that "the David Douglas. )—This is the last volume of of “ trivial incident” bulks largely in Mrs.
cruel, repressive measures against Roman this important work, if we exclude the extra Story's digressive pages. Here and there,
Catholics for two centuries are a dark stain one of corrigenda et addenda which we are
on the history of Protestant Scotland. ” promised. The families it contains include reminiscence.
however, one lights upon an interesting
Mr. Rait, however, is right. A Parliament four of those on which Sir William Fraser Thackeray, and noted the velvety softness
As a young woman she met
illegally summoned changed the religion of wrote-Carnegie of Southesk, the Earls of of his hand. In a lady I have now and
the country, and substituted one series of Sutherland, Wemyss of Wemyss, and the
again observed the same peculiarity, but
dogmas for another. “Of liberty and tolera- old Earls of Strathearn. We are glad to find it is rare ; in a man I have only once besides
tion no one thought. ” “The new clergy that the Rev. John Anderson, whose death remarked it. " She had a distinct talent
made claims as dangerous to civil liberty as is deplored in the prefatory note, was able for music, and once sang to Jenny Lind,
the old. " "The Parliament, long a tool into abridge some of these histories for the
of whom, as of Mario, Grisi, Rubinstein,
the hands of the King, was soon to become present work. As he had assisted Sir Thalberg, Jullien, and other stars,'
a tool in the hands of the Church. ” It may William Fraser, they have a special value. have
readable recollections. The
be very disillusioning to Scotsmen to have The volume is, like those that preceded it, author settled in Edinburgh about 1830,
to admit all this, but it is true, and Mr. unequal. Female cadets or their issue are and glimpses of the social life of the capital
Rait's work is none the less, but all the more, included or excluded at the will of the
valuable, historically, because it runs counter writer or the editor, so that one will in thirty years later fill up a great part
from that time till her marriage some
to“ popular" beliefs. There are some good many cases be forced to supplement the of her book. With that event the record
illustrations and a full index.
information contained in it by other works. stops, but she expresses to her readers
the
The difference in the number of references fond anticipation that one day we may
The Scotsman in Canada : Eastern Canada, is very striking also—the article “Traquair
meet again,” in which case we should look
including Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, (of the cadets of which more might be for matter of more general interest.
New Brunswick,, Quebec, and Ontario, by known) containing, hardly any, whereas
Wilfred Campbell ; and Western Canadă, Tullibardino' and Seton, Earl of Winton' We have noted one or two slips. Sterndale
including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, (which is particularly good), simply bristle Bennett's name is spelt with one t, which is
British Columbia, and Portions of old with important foot-notes. Still, the articles strange from one of his pupils; and it was
Rupert's Land and the Indian Territories, are well done on the whole, and now ground Handel
, not Beethoven, who declared that
by George Bryce. (Sampson Low & Co. )— has been broken in many. Among these he would rather have composed ‘Robin
Last year Mr. J. M. Gibbon's interesting are 'Stair,' useful, although it gives less than Adair, than all his own immortal produc-
little book “Scots in Canada' (see Athen. , one hoped about the early origin of the tions. "
July 15, 1911, p. 71) reminded us of the pro.
Dalrymples ; the “Earls of Strathmore,'
minent part which Scotsmen have played, which hints that the Lyons, the first known Three Generations : the Story of a Middle-
and are playing to-day, in the development of member of which family dates temp. David II. , Class Scottish Family. By Henrietta Keddie.
that most progressive portion of our Empire, may have a Celtic origin, and quotes much (John Murray. )-The interest and value of
British North America. What Mr. Gibbon's from writs at Glamis ; Fleming, Earl of these reminiscences can best be gauged
book briefly indicated and touched upon, Wigtown'; 'Sandilands, Lord Torphichen when we realize that the younger of the
these two important volumes record and (allied to the Douglas " of auld "); 'Hay, “ three generations in question is repre-
analyze with painstaking thoroughness and Earl of Tweeddale'; Lord Spynie'; sented by a narrator whose memory retains
marked ability. That the research necessary the 'Earls of Stirling' (the writer goes out an impression of the floral street-arches
for the compilation of such a work as this of his way to accuse, without giving evidence, which honoured the passing of the first
has been a labour of love for Mr. Wilfred the Parisian “Seer" Mlle. Le Normand of Reform Bill. Miss Keddie has many enter-
Campbell, the well-known poet and scholar forgery); and. 'Lord Somerville. In the taining things to say about the Mid-Victorian
of Ottawa, and for Dr. George Bryce of last (and it is interesting when tonures celebrities with whom, in the course of her
Winnipeg, we can well believe. That their are so much in evidence) we find a curious long and active life, she has come into con-
effort was worth the making no one will reddendo for lands, viz. , a pair of hose con- tact, especially after her gift of writing
doubt who looks, even cursorily, into the taining half an ell of English cloth to be given attractive fiction for young people had se-
nine hundred odd
pages
of the two to the fastest runner from the East End of cured her a position in literary society. But
volumes. Outside the
of “The the town of Carnwath to the cross called the principal charm of the book lies, to our
Makers of Canada " library, the publi- | Cawlo Cross. "
thinking, in its memories of a still earlier
cation of which in Toronto was recently The volume might be more accurate in day, and the breadth and sympathy with
completed, we know of nothing more com. detail. In the Corrigenda the name of Dr. which they are handled. The writer refrains
prehensive, in the shape of biographical Tireman, Sub-Dean of Chichester (p. 85),
to an altogether unusual extent from exalt-
and historical records of the lives and should be filled up, the alteration of Graham ing the past at the expense of the present,
doings of the Dominion's more prominent of Inchbrackie (p: 236) to “Graeme. " made, She readily admits that the white scourge;"
citizens, than · The Scotsman in Canada. ' and in the Wemyss tree (p. 514) “ Keek”
consumption, “ which still slays its thousands,
Mr. Campbell has dealt with the Scotsmen should be Kock, and (p. 518) “ Yorks" in the beginning of the nineteenth century
of his own side of Canada, the east; and 'Yorke.
slow its tens of thousands. "
She bears
some
66
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## p. 220 (#174) ############################################

220
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4400, FEB. 24, 1912
con-
66
66
ungrudging testimony to the great improve-
the removal of ancient landmarks in the
ment in the instruction now provided for EDINBURGH AND DEESIDE.
interval since the first issue appeared ;
girls, while reserving for the old system the
and, as it now stands, it is one of the best
merit, which, as carried out by some teachers,
it doubtless possessed, of developing general
GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH are, in the works in print dealing with the Scottish
intelligence. The
· popular” mind, regarded as rivals eternally removed. It is hardly correct to speak of
capital. There are trilling slips still to be
decline of those
vivial habits which made life a martyrdom criticizing each other --Glasgow sneering at
,
for many women not otherwise unhappily
Edinburgh's
of Porto-
genteel pride," and Edin- Hugh Miller as a “frequenter
situated is also duly recognized by her. burgh, sneering at Glasgow's
bello, since he lived there from 1852 till his
commercial
But the gaiety, the endurance, the bound-
taint
death in 1856. The family of Forrest are
and her smoky, sunless atmosphere.
less hospitality, the strong family affection Princes Street is regarded by many travelled still in possession of Comiston, though the
of that bygone day, are vividly brought people as the finest street in the world. It was Nathaniel
Gow, not his father, the
seems to .
before us.
Almost, indeed, we are led to I but it was a Glasgow man who called it
feel that the balance of happiness lay with
only hauf a street,” because the buildings (p. 23) " began selling fiddles and reel
more famous Niel (never in business), who
the two earlier of the three generations
are all on one side. Obviously, then, no
music at 41, North Bridge. It was in his
commemorated. Certainly Miss Keddie her- greater compliment could be paid to the
self and her sisters seem to have enjoyed a
Scottish capital than to have her praises St. John's Hill, that Campbell wrote his
dusky lodging" in Rose Street, not at
less lively girlhood than their mother and celebrated by a Glasgow man; and that is
* Pleasures of Hope. ' The Rev. Sir Henry
aunts, with their quilting parties and what has been done by Mr. James Bone in
bleaching frolics. But this was mainly due his sumptuous volume Edinburgh Revisited Wellwood Moncreiff (not “Moncrieff”) was
never minister of St. Cuthbert's parish
to a change of residence which condemned (Sidgwick & Jackson). It is said that we
“ Present
them to an exile in the depths of the country, may foretaste the future in the judgments church, as suggested at p. 203.
If that be so, Mr. century at p. 97 should be “last cen-
broken only by rare and eagerly coveted of foreign critics.
Bone, detached and alien, may reasonably
tury. '
visits to Cupar, that “miniature Edinburgh,"
Several new illustrations, some in
colour, add greatly to the value and
with
claim to have his views of Edinburgh iden-
its clean pavements and brilliant
interest of an admirable book.
gaslights, its round upon round of friendly tified with those of posterity.
tea-parties and carpet dances. ” In this At first sight it might seem as if another
pleasant little town the author and her work on Edinburgh must be numbered with
MR. ANDREW LANG recently complained
sisters, during many years,
conducted the contents of Lord Rosebery's Superfluous his statement on the fact that he could not
that Deeside was not "literary,” founding
a flourishing school for young ladies, Book Library, for Edinburgh has a big
realizing an ideal after which the Brontës literature, and Stevenson would appear to buy Dickens's novels there. However this
aspired in vain.
have said almost the last word for the out- may be, the district which stretches between
sider. But Mr. Bone has adopted a line of Aberdeen and Braemar is both picturesque
By collecting a number of articles which struck by his freshness of outlook, and are well illustrated and summarized in
his own. Even Edinburgh readers will be and historical, and these characteristics
have appeared in newspapers, and issuing remark the generally neglected themes which Deeside, painted by William Smith, Jun.
them in the shape of a book entitled he has brought out in his impressions. and described by Robert Anderson (A. & C.
The Gentle Art: Some Sketches and Studies The history and great associations of Edin: Black). The preference given to the artist
(John Murray), Mr. Henry Lamond has burgh are virtually left unnoticed; but,
on the title-page is significant; but Mr.
conferred a distinct benefit on anglers who
on the other hand, we get a vivid idea,
Anderson has done better than merely
frequent Scottish waters ;
• Sketches' he pleasantly traces the de- of what relics of elegance and harmony of this kind, he misses very little that
write up” to the pictures. He knows
for in his derived from the author's own explorations, his subject thoroughly, and, for a work
velopment of the fisherman from the
really remain in the houses built for the Old
beginning with minnows and small fry, Edinburgh gentry, and now tenanted by the
is important.
through the stages of burns and streams, to
very poor. The attitude of the present The general idea is that it was Queen
the final glories of river and lake. , Of Loch occupiers towards these relics is revealed Victoria and Balmoral that "made ", Dee-
Lomond he has special knowledge, being by several pathetic instances recorded at side, but long before Queen Victoria's day
secretary to the local association, and his first hand. This is a side of Edinburgh travellers had penetrated its recesses and
chapters about the fishing there, where the study which has not hitherto been dealt recorded their experiences. Even Taylor,
sport is not to be despised and the scenery with, except in architectural books and the Water Poet, got there, “ with extreme
is beautiful, deserve commendation. In a the reports of charitable societies, and the travell," in 1618. Byron's name is associated
general way it may be said that his advice many pages devoted to it here are not only with “dark Lochnagar," and Clough sang
to anglers, such as the importance of keep- excusable, but also welcome and valuable. The the beauties of the Linn of Dee. It is a
ing out of sight of the fish, is sound ;
same may be said with regard to Mr. Bone's pleasing feature of Mr. Anderson's text that
though we think he exaggerates their dread successful attempt to express and analyze he notes these and other literary associations
of objects in or on the water. In a river the beauty and charm of the New Town of of Deeside ; not forgetting Stevenson, who
trout and salmon are accustomed to see all the brothers Adam, of Hamilton, and of described Braemar as the very 'wale' of
current, and do not alarm themselves on again becoming the study and delight of
manner of débris brought down by the Playfair, which, after a season of neglect, is Scotland, bar Tummelside," and wrote
• Treasure Island' there. The author,
that account. They are also, which is more architects.
however, deals chiefly with the natural
remarkable, singularly free from fear of a
Apart from these outstanding themes, Mr.
beauties of the Dee Valley, with its old
strange object in the water ; thus they
castles and old families, and with the
may be seen rising unconcernedly among Bone's selection of material for impres-
cows which have taken to the water to sions” is somewhat capricious. A whole part which the district has played in
cool themselves, and when a rise of Ay is chapter given up to the Newhaven fishwives the general history of the country. On
on, the trout are often busy within a yard seems too much; and we cannot help We do not see why the identity of Mr.
some minor points we suggest improvement.
of the angler's legs if he be wading, Indeed, feeling that a false note is struck by the pages Dewar Willock, the author of She noddit
both trout and salmon when hooked, after descriptive of whippet racing, which, com-
taking out line, not unfrequently seek pared with that of the North of England, to me," should be shrouded under the
designation “a journalist,"
why
a small thing in Edinburgh life.
refuge close to the fisherman's wading
On
William Forsyth, who sang finely of
stockings and brogues, and a very trying the whole, however, the book is both
position it is for the man, So also with loch pleasing and satisfying.
* My Silver City by the Sea,' should be de-
Its descriptive
fishing: 8 boat drifting with the wind passages are often arresting ; its criti- scrihed simply as “a local poet. ” It is
does not seem to alarm trout at all; they
cisms are genial and kindly; and the surely an exaggeration to say that the
rise freely round it, and when hooked seek literary expression is excellent through popular Jacobite song 'The Standard on
the Braes o' Mar' is sung
probably with
its shelter, to the disgust alike of boatmen out. The seventy-five drawings by which
and angler.
Mr. Hanslip Fletcher has illustrated the
no knowledge of its history and meaning
The chapters on the laws may be studied merit. In many cases they show Edinburgh
text are, with a few exceptions, of high
on the part of either the singer or his audi-
Again, divots,” in general Deeside
with advantage. There are good remarks from points of view that are novel alike to
usage, is not synonymous with
on the etiquette of river and loch, and citizens and visitors.
any more than a “Xauchterspade," a word
much concerning the many varieties of
which attracted Scott, is a spade employed
the salmon family. A short time spent
The favourable opinion we have already in cutting peats. ” A peat-cutting spade
at the redds during the spawning season expressed of Mr. John Geddie's Romantic and a flauchterspade are essentially distinct.
should convince an intelligent observer of Edinburgh (Sands & Co. ) may be emphasized The coloured reproductions of Mr. Smith's
the futility of attempting minute distinction in view of the second edition, just pub- pictures are unequal. Some of them are
of the resultant offspring. The illustrations lished. The text has been thoroughly successful; some (the old bridge of Inver-
deserve praise.
revised to meet the growth of the city and cauld, for example) are garish.
, .
6
a
nor
1s
ence.
peats”;


## p. 221 (#175) ############################################

No. 4400, FEB. 24, 1912
221
THE ATHENÆUM
Τ
. :
a
or
was
6
66
>>
men
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS,
Oxford Books : a Bibliography of Printed
“EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY. ”
MRS, HAMILTON KING, who gives us
Works relating to the University and City of
Letters and Recollections of Mazzini (Long-Oxford, or Printed or Published there, with THE latest instalment of Everyman's
mans), was never on terms of familiar in Appendixes, Annals, and Illustrations. Library” (Dent) shows once more the wide
timacy with Mazzini like the Ashursts. She Vol. II. Oxford Literature, 1450–1640, and scope and enterprise of the series, which has
did not even write to him till 1862, when the
1641-50. By Falconer Madan. (Oxford, long since passed the bounds of the average
Kingdom of Italy was already an accom.
Clarendon Press. When in 1895 the author popular reprint. Mr. Arthur Burrell is
plished fact and his life-work virtually over,
published his Early Oxford Press,' he had responsible for two books, the first of which
But from her seventeenth year “ the actual
in view only a bibliography of printing and --Piers Plowman : the Vision of a People's
actions and words of Mazzini formed an
publishing at Oxford from the earliest date, Christ : a Version for the Modern Reader-
image of the ideal patriot, hero and saint he has enlarged his plan and given us a
1468,” to 1640. In the volume before us should be a revelation of great interest to the
in my mind,” and it is obvious from his bibliography of books about Oxford, while simplified and modernized version
class for which it is intended. Mr. Burrell's
answer to her first letter that he at once
recognized her worth. “Since this moment, carrying his account of Oxford printing
and judicious piece of work. His collection
reckon me as a friend and treat me as such,
publishing to 1650. The 163 years from entitled 1 Book of Heroic Verse,
1478 to 1640 afford 963 entries of Oxford Heroic and Patriotic Verse on the back
he says. The most important and beautiful
letter in these pages is certainly the last, interest; the ten years to 1650 bring up the of the binding, has a much broader range
.
written a few months before his death,
than is usual in volumes of the sort, includ.
The work before us fulfils
though letters from Emilie Venturi, notably
our high ing such diverse manifestations of the
We do not mean that it heroic spirit as "The Roast Beef of Old
those describing the imprisonment in the expectations.
fortress of Gaeta, where she alone
is absolutely faultless —" sometimes Homer England, The Destruction of Sennacherib,
nods - but it is conceived and carried
allowed to visit him, are well worth reading.
a bit of "The Cotter's Saturday Night,' and
In her recollections Mrs. King, does not nothing to ask for, whether he be interested (surely he should not be called
out on a scale which leaves the inquirer various scraps from Shakespeare, Tennyson
Lord
add much to the general picture of Mazzini to
which we have grown accustomed, but the
in the title-pages of the books only, or in their Tennyson "), and others. We regret to
contents, or in the life of the Oxford from notice that, where passages or scraps from
book would be valuable were it only for
the account of his death, heard by Mrs. For the greater part of these ten years
which they sprang or with which they deal.
poems are given, there is no hint added of
King in Pisa from the lips of Madame Oxford rivalled Westminster as a centre of
this practice, and that authors' names are
Roselli, who nursed him in his last illness, interest for the kingdom-Charles I. ruled the special poem.
often mentioned without any reference to
and who religiously kept his rooms there there, as the Long Parliament in London.
We even find the vague
just as he had left them.
Apocrypha. ' Let us now praise famous
In elucidating the history of these ten years (p. 258) deserves a reference as much
My Idealed John Bullesses. By Yoshio no labour has been spared, no source of
as part of Job xxviii. ' cited on the next page.
Markino. (Constable. )-We all know how information left unconsulted, and no pains One of the best uses or excuses to justify an
charming the halting English can be of a omitted to make the result available to anthology for the ordinary public is that it
foreigner who happens to be a delightful the reader. The general index, of some affords a clue to the larger gardens whence
conversationalist. Charming in precisely 150 pages, is a model of what an index its flowers are derived, and we cannot credit
the same way is the writing of Mr. Yoshio should be; and we would especially, refer any section of the community to-day with a
Markino. His delicate, staccato style, his the student to the heading - Oxford, with thorough knowledge of the Bible.
dropped articles and improvised plurals, his its numerous and well-planned subdivisions.
The Muses' Pageant : Myths and Legends
artfully artless neologisms and inversions, one or two small points are worthy of notice of Ancient Greece, retold by W. M. L.
are as piquant as the talk of a witty Parisian Lord Crawford’s ‘Handlist of Proclamations'
who knows just enough of our language to should not be quoted now, as it is superseded Hutchinson, Vol.
I. , Myths of the Gods, deals
with matter now so frequently presented
make it always fresh and original. Much good by Mr. Steele's book issued under his direc-
that its brightness is dimmed. We are
sense, much good feeling, and some ironical tion, and similarly his 'Handlist of English
criticism lie beneath the polite and airy Newspapers’ is superseded by the issue of grateful, however, to the latest compiler for
gossipings of this born artist. As for his the Haigh Hall Library Catalogue. A few supplying a coherent story in which the
When-
drawings, they defy description. The illus- minor misprints will readily be corrected by original sources and form are used.
ever possible, the poets have been allowed
We tender our thanks to
trations in colour are exquisite, full of those interested.
to speak for themselves,” is a principle
atmosphere and of motion ;' but it is the Mr. Madan for his admirable contribution
twenty pages of sketches, containing, many to the history of Oxford and of the Great inspired by good sense, which happily
reduces smart prose.
of them, some score or more of tiny figures, Civil War.
Dana's Two Years before the Mast
all alive, graceful and humorous, that form
welcome, introduced by a sailor of literary
the triumph of the book. The technical The third volume of Standard Books talent, Mr. J. E. Patterson; and Mr. H. B.
skill shown is amazing. Here is the best (Nelson) deals with the Fine Arts, Sport, Wheatley is the very man to put readers in
portrait of Miss Christabel Pankhurst that Philology, Literature, and Children's Books. touch with The Survey of London, by John
has yet been done and the top of a fountain While all the lists will be of value to students Stow, an admirable record first reprinted in
pen would eclipse it. Then there are peeps and librarians, the sections dealing with 1842' by W. J. Thoms. Mr. C. J. Holmes
of landscape, all so minute and true and Philology and Literature stand out as being introduces Leslie's Memoirs of John Con-
beautiful that one can hardly bear to shut of the highest value. We know of no account stable, and Mr.