admirable study of a life of high interest and importance, It is carried out with untiring industry and meticulous care, adorned nevertheless by humour, style, scholarship, and sympathy such as are rarely met with in combination. I believe the closest scrutiny has discovered a wrong accent, or it may be two; yet hours were spent in overhauling them by the most learned doctors of Oxford. Did not Bishop Stubbs see letters and accents in proofs uncurl themselves and shift even after revision? In one of the notes is a word one might wish omitted; in another a sentence must be read with a future verb for a present. The Emperor of Germany' should be the German Emperor (p. 158). Beyond this the writer seems impeccable. It has been said that the pedigree lingers on the threshold, but surely thus much is needed for understanding the man; and it seems an excessive humility which relegates to the notes so much information and so many good stories which would be quite fitly and more pleasantly read in the text. Here and there an old Etonian might add another word of explanation. Cookesley's simile (p. 14) would be helped if it were noted that the 'Cockloft' was entered by stairs which emerged in the middle of the room. It was really a loft; and the poet's head, heralded by the sound of his feet on the stairs, rose slowly from the horizon of the floor. Warre claimed that the 'chape' (p. 4) in his gryphon's mouth was that of the French King John's sword-sheath, which his ancestor produced to prove his capture of the King at Poictiers, as the Pelham did his broken belt, and the Vane a borrowed gauntlet. On p. 79 the patronage of Madvig and Goodwin was not Warre's peculium so much as a borrowing from Dr Hornby. It is, however, true that among others a future patriot-poet-ambassador did suffer therefrom, and unintentionally so resented it as sorely to wound Warre. Till then I never knew how close to his religion lay his schoolwork with the boys. Compare with this what Archdeacon James says (p. 67) of the acute distress caused him by dishonest work in pupil-room. If I were a sound authority, I would question the censure (p. 119) on Warre as accountant. It was he who prescribed to me, when I began housekeeping, a very elaborate and efficacious form of entries on portentous sheets from which I still suffer. It would be absurd to suppose that Warre did not add up his own similar columns and bring out a successful balance. To a friend who says that he gets from the book no picture of the man, I answer that the photographs are well chosen for giving the impression of that square stalwart figure, while the text reminds us of the great warm hand's cordial clasp, the heavy foot's firm stance, and the noble honest presence which well fulfilled the promise of the lovely George Richmond drawing of his youth. Really he was not oppressively tall for his square and solid frame, yet as big as a house' is a phrase written of him, not unjustly, because his was so impressive a personality, whether he met you cheery and alert in Agar's Plough or came into chapel with the procession, bearing on bowed shoulders the solemn weight of his responsibilities. Page 120 might have done well to rail even more angrily at the foolish plague of written impositions; other devices have failed. Drill brings the culprits into too close acquaintance; Dr Lyttelton tried left-hand writing; but how could you be sure it was not bad right-hand work? Learning by heart is of too unequal incidence. Simple sums or perfect writing on double lines are a better solution, if quite necessary. Warre reported to me Dr Walker's words (p. 131) as 'Warre, I did not think you were such a beast!' Page 158 attributes to Foster Cunliffe the merit of having nearly unseated Kaiser Wilhelm. There is also a tradition of another Cunliffe, a clumsy boy who was rather a butt; a cartridge had been left accidentally in his rifle, not slipped in on the field; but Mr Fletcher is sure to be right. In the account of the great flood of 1894 (p. 152) the disappearance of 'Rushes' is not noticed. The Laureate's 'Round the rushes and home again' is an obscure line to the present generation; that famous water-mark deserved an elegy from so excellent a wet-bob. To leave the book once more for the life-as there were two occasions which seemed to need some explanation, so there were two when the true Warre seemed most on his mettle. One was the wonderful time-table and organisation of the school-work made out by him alone on his accession to the Headmastership. Almost 7 the surface. Much improvement, at all events, was made Nature, It was his taking over the coaching of the Eight that made such athletic intercourse fashionable. literature, music, or art had attracted some other Masters, friendly with their boys. In each case there was a danger. For the latter a fear of sentimentality and favouritism; for the athletes a loss of independence The improvement of rowing is a and initiative. common gain, and so is the hardening and regularising of outdoor exercise; but of course it makes many think that amusements are the real business of life-an idea which certainly does prevail very widely among the English gentry, from whom it has spread downwards to the football and cinema crowds, till it becomes a real danger to our national life. The joy and fun of a game risk being swamped by the competitive spirit; when mere games flag, matches must be made to lure the players; soon the match is hardly enough unless there is a Cup or Colours or something to be won. Three pages of the 'Times' are now given where one used to be sufficient; and a fictitious interest fills apparently all the spare time of spectators day after day. The Dirty good men draws the gate-money of struge ratory schools, in colours, prizes, - elders, who, dissatisfied with the country for boxing, fives, competitions, announced in 30 ar incredible was the difficulty of interweaving the different Divisions giving each its room and its due amount of time, so as to temper the numbers of every set to the requirements of their subject and the supply of Masters. The other occasion was the preparation for the Jubilee. The enthusiasm of the School was then strangely infectious. Never before or after was such unanimity. From even the keenest Lords match a large fraction of the School is absent. Here, in Playing Fields, was the whole School, Masters and boys, singing and moving together with the eager precision of oars in an Eight and entirely under the Head's sole sway. At the second Jubilee the novelty was dulled; there was some boredom, more duty and less enjoyment. The first was unforgettable. That both these occasions were feats of organisation shows the main qualities of the man. The time-table really did not hold good for very long. As with the projected series of Eton books, circumstances were too strong for it. Symmetry, Order, Drill were triumphant for a passing show but not flexible enough to last. They tempted outsiders to think them Warre's chief excellence, whereas his outshining virtues were his sweetness and tenderness of heart, his noble humanity, integrity, simplicity, piety. His Confirmation addresses did not get all the attention they deserved; they were scholarly but lacked unction; they explained some theological terms and dwelt on his favourite doctrine of the salvation of Societies by the Remnant' (Isaiah's doctrine and Aristotle's) the vóμevov vylés T.' This with Liberty and 'to know your place and to keep it' deserved and won admission into most of his sermons. There was good stuff, careful and instructive, in them; but of course, if Masters did not attend, boys would take the cue of indifference. In more serious moral reforms much was wanted when he took the reins; and this was perhaps the point which most exercised those who had deprecated his appointment. Things had been going downhill; there were some who could not, others who would not, look into so difficult and painful a trouble. Men whose vigorous, open-air, manly boyhood had left them innocent and ignorant, almost resented attempts to see below |