November 2, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
21 
Lord Randolph Churchill's friends urged on Lord Salisbury 
the desirability of asking Churchill to resume his place in 
the Cabinet, he rephed : ' When one has had a boil on one's 
neck and it has burst, one doesn't invite it to return.' " Also, 
we wonder wiietlier women play as big a part in high politics 
as then. D zzy, Gladstone and Lord Salisbury were three 
Prime Ministers who owed immeasurable help to their wives ? 
Does this influence still go oa ? Wou d Mr. Balfour have 
been a more effective Prime Minister had he been married ? 
An inspiring topic for a Woman's Debating Society ! 
Ezekiel, in the valley of dry bones, was conscious of a 
rustling when the bones came together and lived again. And 
on every page of this volume, the reader is conscious of a similar 
russeUing. The dry bones live ; dead episodes reform tliem- 
selves, and we are back in those old days, when politics and 
society seemed to be the only two things in the world that 
really mattered. Tliat was before Armageddon, and we are 
grateful to this prince of raconteurs for so pleasantly reminding 
us that sucli days really have been. 
Canadians at Ypres 
THE history of the first Canadian contingent — or rather 
of a thinly disguised regiment thereol, forms the 
subject matter of Maple Leaves in Flanders Fields, by 
Herbert Rae (Smith Elder and Co., 5s. net), a book 
which m ^y be compared with Boyd Cable's Between the Lines 
for vivid narrative, humour, and the spirit of the fighting 
men " ov-r there." The author starts his story with the- 
enrolling of the men ; he takes them on to Valcartier and 
Salisbury Plain, and then on to their initiation in Flanders 
and their e iic defence of Ypres. " The City of Distress " as , 
the author calls it. A little after this the story ends, fittingly 
enough, for there were, after that great battle, so few of the 
lirst contingnt left that the regiment round which the story 
IS written had only two of its original officers, and was filled 
up by drafts wliicli rendered it alino it unrecognisable. But 
the heroes who first formed the " Pompadours " had lived, 
in their time in Flanders fields, as they had never lived be- 
fore, and one gathers, though it is not said, that they died 
content with their fate. 
The biting humour of the flea-b'tten colonial, and the lik- 
ing for a good joke, are evident tliroughout the work ; here 
and there is a story that will give the reader a thrill — that 
story of the man who, with a big ulcer under his arm through 
a badly fitted pack, begged to be alio ■ ed to go up to the 
trenches, and tiie still greater story of hi. death. Knowing 
that he was for hospital on the next day, lie put his head up 
over the parapet in company with his rifle to bag a German 
and that was the end. But there are many stories in the 
book, and all are good. 
The doctor, the transport officer, the coljnel, the adjutant 
and the rest of them -they are all personal friends of the 
reader by tlie time the last page is reached, and one puts 
down the book with a feeling of regret at parting from such 
" live " company. The story of their deeds at Ypres will live 
as long as tne name of Canada endures, and it has been told 
in this book in a manner worthy of the deeds of the first con- 
tingent. Its members wore among them the medals of a 
score of wars ; they were hardened to the game before they 
saw Valcartier, and they played their parts nobly and with 
fine contempt of death. Herbert -Rae has shown cl arly 
what manner of men they were, and his book is an outstand- 
mg one among the many personal records of the war. 
Major Corbett-Smith, whose Retreat from Mons is in 
the very first rank of war-book>, is also a composer. He has 
written the music for Mr. Cant Wall's naval ballad " The 
liattle of Jutland Bank," which w.is publislied on Trafalgar 
Day. It is a fine stirring song (publishers, Weekes and 
Co., of 14, Hanover Street, W.). The first verse runs: — 
The Horn Reef guards the silvery track 
Wiiere south from stormy Skager Rack 
The waves come dancing ; 
Where Beatty watches tlirough the mist 
That veils a sea o£ amethyst 
The foe advancing. 
Humoro'^Hies bv an Australian Soldier, is a collection 
of sketches (is.) by Corporal Cecil Har t, whose work on 
the Syiney lidlletin is well known to all Australians. They 
arenot only amusing, but illuminative, giving one an excellent 
idea of how dilferent types in this country strike the soldiers 
from " down under." There is one type of British officer 
who is evidently anathema. But Corporal Harlt does not 
spare his immediate comrades. The sketches are e.xtremely 
clever and individual. They should be 1 .ced on all book- 
stalls. Tlie Australian Trading and Agencies Company of 6, 
Broad Street Place, E.C., publish them. 
BAIRNSFATHER 
C-iptain Bruce Biirnsfather has written a book, one bnok, only one book, 
and he is not writing any other book about the War or about anything 
else. Its title is "Bullets and Billets" and this is a copy of its cover. 
The price of the book is 5/- net (postage 5d. extra), and it will be fully 
illustrated with about 20 full-page pictures a> d about 50 dr '?vtnf>s in the 
text, all of which are new. As for t e text : it is the story of Captain 
Bairnsfather's own experiences in the War, a tory always amusing and often 
moving It has the tame character as his drawings, the same homely 
humour, the same quaint attitude towards life and danger. 
A limited edition Je luxe will be is ued, each copy being numbered and signed 
by the author and containing a small original drawing. The price of copies 
in this tdition will be £5 5 0. 
GRANT RICHARDS LTD. 
8 ST. MARTIN'S STREET. LONDON, W.C. 
/ 
Duckworth & Go.'s New Books 
Splinters : 
By LAWSON WOOD. 
A bsok of humour. 
Paper Covers. Is. net. Postage Zd. 
H. M. BATEMAN. 
Burlesques ; a Book of Drawings. 
Mr. Bateman stands revealed in this collection of drawings 
an artist inspired by the true comic spirit. 
Crown 4to. 2s. 6d. net; postage 5d. 
Hunlikely ! 
W. HEATH ROBINSON. 
Now 
A new volume of the whimsical Heath Robinson Drawings. 
IN Great Demand. 
J SECOND IMPRESSION NOW PRINTING. 
Umall 4to. 2s. 6d. net ; postage Ad. 
W. HEATH ROBINSON. 
Some "Frightful" War Pictures 
SIXTH IMPRESSION. 
Paper Covers. Is. net. Postage Zd. 
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS. 
With the French in France & Salonka 
" This, the last, volume of the late Richard Harding Davis is 
certainly his best. Deep insight into complex problems, engaging 
frankness. From cover to cover the interest is maintained." — Daii>x 
Telegraph. 
Second Impression. Illustrated. Zs. 6d. net; postage 5d. 
By JOHN MORSE. 
An Englishman Z Russian Ranks 
A New and Cheaper Edition. (B'ourth Printing.) 
" This book is one of the most remarkable the war has given 
us. . . . He keeps us spellbound with his straightforward narra- 
tive." — Daily News. 
DUCKWORTH & CO., Publ shers, Covent Garden, London. 
A List of Autumn Announce iii(7it.'< can he had gratis and post free 
on request. 
