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REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



The Battlefields of Scotland. By T. C. F. 

 Brotchie. (Jack.) 



A volume, the material of which has been 

 drawn from the best and latest authorities, 

 and which is charged with memories fas- 

 cinating not only to the Scotsman, but to 

 all who love that which appertains to past 

 history. The author has enriched his book _ 

 with sixty drawings, illustrating every ' 

 phase of the various battles which took 

 place in Scotland, from the first recorded 

 Ijattle of Mons Grampius, described by 

 Tacitus, to Culloden. which left Prince 

 Charlie homeless and a fugitive. Renfrew, 

 Largs, Stirling, Brigg, Bannockburn, Flod- 

 den. are names graven deep on the heart 

 of the Scottish nation, and it only remains 

 here to say that they are so described as to 

 fascinate readers who do not call them- 

 selves by the proud name of Scot. 



A Londoner's London. By Wilfred Whitten. 

 (Methuen, 6s.) 



Readers of this book will wish that they 

 could take their journeys through London 

 with Mr. Whitten as guide. Recollections, 

 anecdotes, historical records, are here 

 poured out un.stintedly. If one did not know 

 that Mr. Whitten came to London from the 

 north country, one would almost guess it, 

 for it has passed into a proverb that no 

 born Londoner knows his London well. 

 The book is enriched by plates of many 

 of the buildings, such as Clare Market, 

 Booksellers' Row, and so on, of which only 

 the remembrance remains. The delightful 

 anecdotes are so many that it is impossible 

 to produce them here, but one Avhich has 

 an especial reference to Mr. W. T. 

 Stead refers to ^Imvbray House, the 

 old oflBces of The Review of Reviews, 

 and also of T.P.'s Wcel-h/, which Mr. 

 '\\Tiitten supposes were built on the 

 site of the residence of Albany Wal- 

 lace, who raised the monument of 

 Garrick in the Abbey. In the same 

 street it was that Mrs. Lirriper waged 

 warfare -with lodgers and servant girls. 

 In those days Norfolk iStreet ran right 

 down to the Embankment. One leaves 

 the book with a sense of loss, on accownt 

 of the many houses of which ^Ir. Whitten 

 speaks that liave already vanished. 



A Modern History of the English People. By 

 R. H. Gretton. (Grant Richards. 7s. 

 6d. net.) 



This second volume carries on our history 

 in all its phases. It is as brilliai>t as the 

 first, and its vivacity is as telling. The 

 opening chapter deals with the Boer War, 

 the authorities continually referred to be- 

 ing The Nineteenth t'entury and The 

 Times, consequently, from the point of 

 view of the few men who had the courage 

 to stand up against the Avar, it is some- 

 what biassed. The story of the Coronation 

 year, with its hopeful beginning, and the 

 great shock of June 24, Mr. Kipling and 

 the Islanders, and the reception of the 

 Boer generals, is followed up by the Trade 

 Union difficultie.?, and Mr. Chamberlain's 

 speech, which so infuriated Germany. In 



the last page, after the description of the 

 death of King Edward, Mr. Gretton re- 

 marks that it is curiously characteristic 

 of this period that the word " respectable " 

 practically ceased to have any weight in 

 upper and middle-class life, where of old 

 it had borne a moral significance; it is a 

 part of English life, enfranchised from 

 .strict upbringing, making mistakes, spend- 

 ing rather wildly, inclined to be noisy, 

 but on the whole demanding reality. 



The Isle of Life. By Stephen F. Whitman. 

 (Scribner.) 



About two years ago a powerful novel, en- 

 titled " Predestined," appeared from the 

 pen of a new writer, Stephen French Whit- 

 man. His second book, which he calls " The 

 Isle of Life," fully sustains his reputation 

 for literary work and well-built structure. 

 The hero of this story is a singularly re- 

 pellent person, who, however, contains in 

 him what tradition and literature have 

 come to recognise as the essentials of mas- 

 culinity. Repulsed by the girl he loves, he 

 seizes her in his arms and springs over- 

 board from the deck of a Mediterranean 

 steamer. He then swims with her to a 

 small island off the coast of Sicily, she 

 fighting like a cave woman against his 

 admiration. In a cholera epidemic and 

 a native rebellion he proves himself to be 

 a real hero, and, in the end, compels, if 

 ever the term were literally true, the ad- 

 miration and love of the woman. There is 

 some fine description, some brilliant con- 

 versation, and much that is stimulating. 



John Cave. By W. B. Trites. (Duffield.) 



An unusual story. Its subject is not a 

 pleasant one. It tells of a rather unat- 

 tractive American newspaper man. who 

 has many unpleasant experiences while be- 

 coming convinced that sordidness does not 

 pay. He had a soul "too timid to destroy 

 itself, too weak to uplift from the morass 

 its weight of flesh in sustained flight." 

 There is a beautiful, pure and angelic 

 " Diana " and an unfortunate but very 

 attractive "Prudence," who "had not al- 

 ways been as she ought to have been." The 

 story is told with a powerful, realistic 

 directness which suggests the Russian mas- 

 ters in its pessimism and the French' in its 

 artistry of st\-le. 



The Adventuress. By George Willoughby. 

 (Max Goschen.) 



This new firm of publishers evidently knows 

 good work when it appears. Mr. Wil- 

 ioughby's short studies and stories, though 

 they have some defects of immaturity, are 

 possessed of a real distinction. (The first 

 in the book, which provides the title, is 

 perhaps the weakest of them all.) Mr. 

 Willoughby writes, in the main, of the 

 horse-'bus ^poch ; we should say that, about 

 1903, he discovered London — its river, its 

 buildings, its restaurants, its excursions 

 and alarums, its women of different kind.s. 

 He wrote, one would imagine, when his 

 impressions were fresh. At any rate, they 

 are freshly written. They have, too, the 



