Tue Lire or Avatimat, Couttnowoos-—By Geoffrey Murray. With 24 Tilustrations. Hutchinson, London, 18/=.
Tynesiders know Collingwood's worth, although some years ago when his monument at Tynemouth was danger of neglect it was not too easy to collect funds to repair a national commission, Outside, Northumberland ideas of Collingwood may be a little vague. Most people know that he abolished flogging in the navy, that was Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar and actually brought the victorious fleet back to England, For the rest, the schoolboy who remembers that Nelson called him "a noble fellow," but asked Hardy to kiss him possibly representative of a large body of English opinion on the subject of a really great seaman and naval commander. So It is highly Wsfactory that Mr, Geoffrey Murray, himself a Neweastle man, should have filled an obvious gap in'English naval biography. Mr. Murray has written a most readable Ife of Col-Jingwocd and brings out to the full the nobility of kis character, the manful way In which he struggled against ungrateful treatment from the government, and the soundness of his professional ability. The story has its olgnant features, most of all. the poverty in which the Collingwood family were plunged by the niggardly treatment their father had received. In 1040, or 30 years after Collingwood had been buried in St. Paul's Catheral, his elder daughter was living in eccentric retirement. Her maid was to be married and she wanted to give a suitable wedding present. Funds were short but generosity con: quered eccentricity. On ker sideboard was the elaborate Kettle which the Corporation of Neweustle had given her father after Trafalgar. She presented It to the bride," w promptly pawned.it. The kelile was eventually discovered by an antly query in a pawnshop at Canterbury {in 1686, Tt appears that that particular pledge was not the original one obtained by the servant but actually tone which showed that an alderman of Canterbury had pawned it and it had never been redeemed. The anti-guard was not able to purchase it and the kettle tas been lost, Bringing Up Daughters Mr, Murray gives an amusing account of Collingwood's efforts to direct his daughters' education in the Intervals between fighting the French Mounted by the fear that they of fashion, sot himself to give his girls a know-Tedge of the world go that they could take care of themselves when he was heaven, He wanted neither of them to become a Lady Rattle: turning her home Into a. gam= bling-baure and nightly" staking Jewels, furniture, even. his precious Snks, at fore, hazard, loo, of whist, The Rear-Admiral detested snuffataking Tadies who could comprehend nothing Beyond Pam or Spadilfe. inst be given a knowledge of. th World in. which "they lived "so that they. centd care of themselves.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.