Dupnzasions ano Meaonies wr Banes Sacra eet a ets Pp. Xily 208 Bight iastra-
On the jacket of this book we are told that "the author, a familiar and popular member of European ety, was on terms of friendship with three German Emperors, the /Bismarcks, the Queen of Roumania, Jand most of the leading British and families. Her book contains reminiscences and anecdotes notable, figures of her time, in-Jeluding the above and Deans Liddell and Inge, Joseph Chamberlain, Count Moltke, Price Munster, and many others." The claim is a per-Hfectly Just one, and if makes the book all the more disappointing. /Memoirs are not easy to write; and this book shows how difficult it is seize what is interesting and vital, and, still more, to know what ty leave out, There is hardly a. single detail about any one of the Jereat figures of the Victorian age with whom the writer was on intimate or friendly terms which. really adds to our knowledge of their character. If we take one of the less widely famous, Tenry Pelham, how greatly Oxford men who. knew and loved him would have welcomed a few words from Baroness Deichmann, closely connected as she was with him, to add ito the skilful touches and masterly appreciation which his friend Francis Haverfield prefaced to the (Collected Essays and Studies of his predecessor in the chair of Roma History!
But there is nothing in the great majority of cases but comparatively uninteresting and matter-of-fact details. There is one anecdote about, Joseph Chamberlain that is worth remembering, showing how he tried dissuade Germany from naval competition, and even enlisted Baroness Deichmann as his emis-ery. She was, however, soon dissuaded by Count Posadowsky from pressing the matter further, while another confirmation of the story that Bismarck distorted the Ems telegram may be welcome to histor-ans. The story about Sarah Bernhardt is entirely new and so unexpected as to leave one gasping for breath.
In criticizing the book in more detail, we should note that the di is sometimes slightly Teutonic: "of my so celebrated great aunt, Mrs. Fry, I have no personal recollect tions" reads almost like a transla-ton, and there are a number of fakes in Italian names, ete.
sono pronti®" does not mean "we (but they) are not ready" (p. 26). The chief hotel of the early "seventies was the Hotel Costanzi (not Costanza, the opera house still retains the name). The German Piazza) Caffarelli. Palazra Barlberini may be a misprint. Archilaon is certainly an error for Achilleion jas the name of the German Emreror'e villa at Corfu, But the pity it all is that a sense of humour seems to have always been lacking. Cne sees that in the anecdote related on p. 189:
Tt was dificult to realize Biemarck's rower and influence during the years when he was in office, Once, at a party Jat our hence in the inter eighties when tone diplomatists were. present, some: ady caked when my portrait was 10 taken: I very tactlessly answered th if T had any money to dispose of, 1 would send it to the great Chancellor Jor to Count Moltke to enable them to feefend Germany."
Such a passage as the fall ican only raise an unintended smile However, I saw many faces 1 knew let the wi ind. though, they be-Tenged, to shopkeepers mostly, 1. felt lure they regretted my departure, iisa'psla tap balls roputariy" (p. 141)?—for it seems a synthesis of that side of the Victorian attitude to-rds life which has roused the. satire of Mr. Lytton Strachey, and while mary hold that in his strietures he has exceeded the just Bieasure, expecially in dealing with the principal figure (to whom he renders it is true, perhaps unwilling four certainly sincere homage in the fine concluding passage of his biography) one trembles to think what ko might say of a bock like his, and how difficult it would be find cry defence against his What a pity that a candid jond, or even Mr. Murray's reader, did ret give the author a few wards of advice, which might have made the beck a far better one.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.