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whereas, in her opinion, the fault lies with themselves and their religious ritual. She contends that anything which affects one-eighth of the population of the world must be important to the whole human race, and must therefore be discussed in its general aspects by others than Indians.

SOME PEOPLE. By HAROLD NICOLSON.

net.

Constable; 7s. 6d.

If there be in these sketches much that is purely imaginary, as the author says in his note, there is also much that is true to the characters of the people he describes, and the whole is enlivened by a ready wit and an unusually graceful style. These different essays form together an unusual kind of autobiography of the author, for each of the people described had an effect on Mr. Nicolson, beginning with "Miss Plimsoll," who was his governess in various of the embassies inhabited by his parents. There were also " J. D. Marstock," his boyhood hero at Wellington; "Professor Malone," the war correspondent, who spoke of the Foreign Office" with a note of disappointed motherhood "; and "Arketall," Lord Curzon's valet, the richest figure in this pleasant gallery of portraits. Of" Arketall's " master there are some attractive vignettes.

THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. By EDITH C. BATHO. Cambridge University Press; 7s. 6d. net.

JAMES HOGG," the Ettrick Shepherd," was well worth rescuing from the partial obscurity into which he has fallen, for the sake, not only of his amusing characteristics, but because, as Miss Batho writes, he "produced a formidably large quantity of prose and poetry, of which little is worthless, much of good second-class quality, and some among the best of its kind." The author of this study is chiefly concerned with a critical consideration of the Ettrick Shepherd's writings, but Hogg's character was inseparable from his writing, and there are many lively letters which give us a picture of this quaintest of men in all his pleasant oddity.

THE MEDIÆVAL CASTLE IN SCOTLAND. The Rhind

Lectures in Archæology, 1925-6. By W. MACKAY MACKENZIE. With 69 Illustrations and 19 Plans. Methuen; 15s. net. THE archæologist is no longer concerned solely with architectural features, but contrives to unite his interest in these with a desire to reconstruct from the architecture something of the lives of the inhabitants. This combination of interests is a marked feature of Mr. Mackenzie's book. The author advances in his "palace plan " a new explanation of the particular development of the Scottish castle, and claims that the use of the term palace (as employed by him) is applicable in Scotland to a whole class of buildings.

RAMBLES IN HIGH SAVOY. By FRANÇOIS GOs. With a Preface by GEOFFREY WINTHROP YOUNG; and an Introduction by F. REGAUT (President of the French Alpine Club). Translated by FRANK KEMP. With numerous Illustrations from Photographs. Longmans; 21s. net.

THIS is one of those admirable super-guide-books, to which, as Mr. Young says, we used to be superior, even when we carried one of them in our knapsack, but whose value all travellers have now learnt. Not only are they surer guides to a region than the ordinary guide-book, but they combine the scenery with the people, and so enhance the interest of both. M. Gos has a life-long acquaintance with the French Alps, as had his father before him, so that this book is extremely authoritative. The photographs are exquisite, and there are one or two on almost every page.

THE DIARY OF A COUNTRY PARSON: The Rev. James Woodforde. Volume III, 1788-1792. Edited by JOHN BERESFORD. Illustrated. Oxford University Press.

net.

12s. 6d. THE third volume of Parson Woodforde's diary is particularly interesting because it covers the years of the French Revolution, and shows how little this affected ordinary life in England for some time. For example, take this note, on June 27th, 1791 : "Counter-Revolution in France, the King, Queen and Dauphin have made their escape. Dinner to-day Hash-Mutton and a Suet Pudding, etc." The editor supplies footnotes relating the Parson's comments to the historical events, but it is in its record of the little things of everyday-the rhubarb and ginger given to a sick maid-servant, and so on-that the attraction lies in this bit of old England.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE IRISH WAR. By DARRELL FIGGIS. Benn; 16s. net.

THE Irish character includes a capacity for a certain cold fury, which is very difficult for anyone else to understand. It also includes a capacity for cold amusement in moments of peril, of which other people seem incapable. Both of these habits of mind are present in this book, and they balance each other, so that the general effect is singularly unemotional for an ardent partisan describing a bitter conflict. Darrell Figgis was one of the many Irishmen who could see that friendly personal contact was possible between Irishmen of the north and south, in spite of differences of politics; but who failed to see how easily the same personal contact might have been possible between Irish, English and Scottish, but for a hard refusal on both sides to "learn anything or forget anything" in dealing with Ireland's claim to independence. The whole of this book is an unhappy record of suspicion and treachery, even between Irishmen themselves. It opens with the episode of the Howth gun-running, engineered by Darrell

Figgis, with the help of that strange idealist, Roger Casement, and that even stranger Englishman, Erskine Childers, who had once warned England against German designs in his admirable book, "The Riddle of the Sands." It describes "in parenthesis " the Easter Rising, for Figgis was at that time living in the far west of Ireland. Here again it is shown that the final decision for the rising was a deliberate throwingaway of lives, because the majority of the volunteers had been forbidden to take action. The author believes that only through this was the Free State made a possibility. It is open to doubt. He himself suffered his first imprisonment as a result of it, and later was nearly hanged by a demented British officer.

The book is as frank about the less pleasant sides of the Sinn Fein campaign as about its higher aims, and it will prove valuable for future historians as an honest record of a tragic episode.

THE LAND OF LOCHIEL AND THE MAGIC WEST. By T. RATCLIFFE BARNETT. With 20 Illustrations. Edinburgh:

Grant & Son; 7s. 6d. net.

WHEN the evenings of autumn are upon us, there can be no better pastime than in reading of places we hope to visit next year, and for all who know Lochiel's country by experience or by hearsay, the pleasant pages of Mr. Barnett's book will form an admirable refreshment or introduction. Mr. Barnett knows the Western Highlands in every aspect-the scenery, the beasts and the birds, and also the history and legend and he can intertwine these interests with skill and charm. The photographs reproduced as illustrations were taken by a wellknown Scottish mountaineer, the Rev. A. E. Robertson, and show an accomplished artistry.

PEOPLES AND PROBLEMS OF THE

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PACIFIC. By J.
Illustrated. Fisher

THESE volumes are the fruit of an intensive and prolonged study of the various races inhabiting the Pacific Islands, and the author covers an immense range in so much detail that it is impossible in a short notice to do more than draw the attention of all those interested in racial questions to the value of these volumes as a work of reference. Each volume contains a comprehensive index.

THE OCEAN OF STORY: Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara. Now Edited by N. M. PENZER, M.A., F.R.G.S., F.G.S. In Ten Volumes. Volume VIII. With a Foreword by Professor W. R. HOLLIDAY, The University, Liverpool. Privately printed. London: C. J. Sawyer, Ltd.

MR. PENZER'S long and devoted labour in the cause of knowledge is drawing towards its close, and Professor Holliday, in his Introduction

to Vol. VIII, makes valuable practical suggestions for a more intensive attention to comparative folk-lore from the mass of local material now gathered. This new volume includes two more appendices, one on "The Swan-Maiden "Motif and the other on The Romance of BetelChewing.

ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY. By JAMES WARD, late Professor of Mental Philosophy at Cambridge; Fellow of the British Academy; and Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. With a Memoir of the Author by OLWEN WARD CAMPBELL. Cambridge University Press; 16s. net.

As his daughter writes in her Memoir, Professor Ward's writings are of interest not only in themselves, but as reflecting his personality— the personality of a man who "adventured" through a life that was always a voyage of discovery. "From the dismal back-woods of a narrow Congregationalism, uncultured and Calvinistic, to regions of unlimited speculation .. is, after all, a long journey."

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THE BALEARICS AND THEIR PEOPLES. BY FREDERICK CHAMBERLIN, LL.B., M.R.I., F.R.Hist.S., F.S.A., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. With 42 Illustrations and 3 Maps. John Lane;

18s. net.

IT is only in recent years that the Balearic Islands have been known to the ordinary travelling public, and Mr. Chamberlin is well qualified, as is shown by the imposing array of letters which follow his name, to instruct the ignorant in the history, folk-lore and customs of the people, and in the climate and bird-life of the islands. That he makes his information interesting is certain and, since he spends several pages in proving the inaccuracy of another writer on Majorca on a small point, we must assume that his own work is accurate.

No. 503 will be published in January, 1928.

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