OXFORD IN THE FIFTIES Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 



^ 3s. 6d. 



Mr Sillifant Suckoothumb 



and Other Oxford Yarns 

 By COMPTON READE 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SYDNEY HERKALL 

 "As we gather from Mr Compton Reade's short preface, nearly fifty 

 years have passed since ' Mr Sillifant Suckoothumb ' was penned. The 

 author confesses that he himself finds his pictures of Oxford life, as it 

 appeared to him half a century ago, to be 'as garish as Gilra/s.' In the 

 days celebrated by Mr Reade, the fun was faster and more furious than 

 now it is, when the getting of a good degree is more of a business than it 

 was among the uproarious undergraduates who were Mr Reade's contem- 

 poraries. ' After so long an interval,' says the author, ' I fail to com- 

 prehend the ebullience which could have conceived a farrago of fantoccini? 

 This sentence well illustrates a serious fault in Mr Reade's style, in which 

 there is too much Latin and too little Anglo-Saxon. Sometimes the use 

 of languages other than English is not at all successful. We read of 

 'gentlemen par sang,'' and of an undergraduate who was 'cramming 

 auturgically. In the story that gives to the volume a title, the chief 

 person is a variant of Mr Verdant Green. Fresh from the coddling care 

 of his grandmother, Mr Sillifant Suckoothumb went up to Oxford to 

 display the knowledge drummed into his head by a private tutor. Though 

 he did not shine in the examination for entrance at St Aldate's College, 

 he was accepted by the Provost, not on account of his learning, but on 

 account of his relationship to Lady Sillifant. The Provost was a tuft- 

 hunter. The story keeps closely to the familiar pattern. As a matter of 

 course the young noodle got into the company of unmerciful wags, who 

 deceived him on as many points as possible, made him painfully intoxicated, 

 and involved him in several misunderstandings. In this story, and in all 

 the others, there are moments of excellent fooling, but on the whole the 

 series does not strike us as a success. Mr Sydney HerralFs pictures are for 

 the most part amusing." Literary World. 



" Mr Reade tells us that the contents of this volume first saw the light 

 nearly fifty years ago the title story having appeared in The Boys' 

 Athenaum and the other yarns in The Belgravia Magazine. They date 

 back to a period in the Victorian Era when the humour of Oxford under- 

 graduates was supposed to be identified with alcoholic horse-play, and 

 'Cuthbert Bede' who was not a member of the university imagined 

 ' The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green.' To those who still find pleasure 

 in that out-of-date grotesque, Mr Reade's rechauffe will commend itself; 

 but the author would have acted wisely if he had refrained from a revision 

 which has involved him in anachronisms. His stories may have passed 

 muster in the sixties ; but allusions to our late Queen and her successor claim 

 for them a twentieth-century standpoint, from which they are, happily, 

 incredible. The book is cleverly illustrated by Sydney Herrall, and we 

 prefer the illustrations to the text. The latter, in any case, must be referred 

 back to the period when it came into existence. Sheffield Telegraph. 



42 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C. 



23 



