March i, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
17 
THE long, useful and varied career of Sir Evelyn 
Wood has not been altogether barren of Hterary 
record and achievement, but the veteran Fielcl- 
]\larshal shows in his Winnourd Memories 
(Cassell and Co., i6s. net), that he still has, in his eightieth 
year, sufficient material left to draw on for an agreeable 
and iiiteresting volume. The book, as its title suggests, 
is a collection of stories and random reminiscences, 
sometimes grouped loosely under a fairly comprehensive 
heading, like " Memorials and Obituaries." It is there- 
fore a Vather difficult book to deal with as a whole. It 
contains several good stories. It is full of army gossip 
of a kind that is really informing as to men and matters. 
Sir Evcljm is one of a group of Generals to whom are 
due some of the greatest of modern improvements in the 
military machine. This is not the place, even were the 
writer properly equipj)cd for the task, to write an appre- 
ciation of their labours. The spirit in which they were 
done is best illustrated by Sir Evelyn himself in the 
following sentence from a recruiting speech he n^ade in 
October, 1014 : " Your squadron and company com- 
manders may say to you, ' Come on,' but you will ne\er 
hear ' Go on.' " 
:!: :it 5i: i^ 5i! 
Perhaps one of the most interesting chapters for the 
general reader in Win7iowcd Memories is that in which 
the author " accepts the challenge of those who decry 
fox-hunting by showing what hunting men did in the 
Retreat from Mens." The horse, pace Mr. H. G. Wells, 
plays a great part in the successful general's scheme of 
life. He does not always, however, bring to his subject 
the same absorbed interest and specialised knowledge 
that Roger Pocock, old ranch horseman and founder of 
the Legion of Frontiersmen, shows in Horses (John 
Murray, 5s. net.) Professor J. Cossar Ewart, in a short 
preface, pays tribute to the remarkable character of this 
book, and indeed, it deserves his tribute, for ahke on 
the sides of history, theory and practice it shows know- 
ledge illuminated by imagination. It is packed full of 
horse-lore and what can, with unusual propriety, be 
termed horse-sense, and, though at times the style is 
rather rough and abrupt, it does not seem imsuitable 
to its subject and never obscures the writer's meaning. 
Here you will hear the other side of the question 
about fox-hunting and the British Army. It is worth 
hearing — as arc the rest of Mr. Pocock's contentions. 
***** 
As Sir Evelyn Wood's new book" of reminiscences will 
interest readers who have no direct connection with the 
Army, so Memories of Eton Sixty Years Ago (John 
Murray, 9s. net), will interest others than the Etonians 
to whom it chiefly appeals. The book is by A. C. 
Ainger, and it contains contributions from N. G. 
Lyttleton and John Murray, describing the old school 
from the oppidan point of view, Mr. Aingei*having been 
himself a colleger. Most of the changes to which Mr. 
Ainger and his collaborators call attention in this interest- 
ing compilation are, mutatis mutandis, common to most 
of the Public Schools. It is this opportunity of studying 
the changes that have taken place in such schools during 
the last sixty years that will chiefly interest the general 
reader ; while the mutanda, the matters of peculiarly 
Etonian significance, will especially interest the Etonian. 
I fancy that the verdict given by either class of readers 
will be what Mr. Ainger expects it to be : " Eton has 
changed greatly and in many ways since the fifties — 
Etonians x-ery little, or not at all." It should be added 
that Mr. Ainger is neither wholly for the past, nor wholly 
for the present. He is in the first place a .recorder, and 
an urbane entertaining recorder, of fact. He is also a 
judicious critic whose book can be used with profit by 
the modern educationalist. 
***** 
Education under difficulties that probably make it as 
real and effective as any education in the vvorld is de- 
scribed in In Ruhleben (Hurst and Blackett, 6s. net). 
Here in truth is a University that will rest for all time as 
a triumph of mind over matter. The book consists of 
letters from an interned Oxford Undergraduate to his 
mother. These letters are particularly noteworthy for 
their repose and restraint. We feel instinctively that a 
noble mother must have reared so fine a son, and as 
Englishmen we share her pride in him : " Conununal 
fellowship," he writes, "lies at the root of all deeply 
significant experience, and it is in unity we must W'ork." 
It is this communal spirit which charms us in these 
letters and makes us pass over the occasional didacticism 
of youth with an understanding smile. The value and 
interest of the book is increased by a series of im- 
pressionist sketches of the camp by Stanley Grimm. 
***** 
I must say that I expected from the foreword to Sydney 
A. Mosclev's With Kitchener in Cairo (Cassell and Co., 
5s.), something very much more sensational than I found. 
As a matter of fact the foreword, which describes how an 
Egyptian Minister was induced to withdraw his preface 
from the work after getting Lord Kitchener's permission 
to write it, is the most sensational thing about it. For 
the rest it is an interesting and illuminating description 
of Egypt during the administration of Kitchener, whose 
championship of the cause of the fellahin gained him 
in some quarters the title of " The Lloyd George of 
Egypt." It explains clearly what was done during the 
period for the Egyptian peasant proprietor, and it goes 
very fully into the vexed question of the raising of the 
Assouan Dam. It also shows, and here perhaps it was 
that Egyptian officialdom found it difficult to approve 
the book — that the British occupation was unable to 
give full effect to British ideas of law, -order and liberty, 
chiefly owing to the existence of the Capitulations. In 
short the book is an interesting chapter by an observant 
journalist in the history of a country, perhaps destined 
once more to take a great place in the world. 
War and the Future 
H. G. Wells. 
I 
*' lias tlie faculty cf communicating liis giowing curiosity about life to 
liis readers." — Tlic Times. 
" Of entrancing interest, marlieci by all Jlr. Wells' incisive style and 
freshness of outlook."— f^ai/i/ Graphic. 6. net. 
Winnowed Memories 
Field-Marshal Sir Evklyn Wood. v,c, 
" A Jolly bum:h of ineiuories ; a vivacious chronicle of things eeen and 
Iie:irfl durinj; a long and adventurous career; oor.cainis a great number of 
thobe agreeable aiieodotes whicli have a dramatic value because they 
.siiow us charaot<?r Jn a<;tion." \Vith S Photogravures, 10s. net. 
My Remembrances 
The Melancholy Tale of " Ma." 
Edward H, Sothern. 
"An important adiUtion to tiro literature of tire stage , . . contains 
nuiiiy riM'eretices to Sir Henry Irving, David lielasco. Chariot Frohrnan, 
and' otlier diistinguished tlgu.re'S of American tlieatpical history." 
i2e. net. —Dailu Graphic. 
The House Of Cassell. Ludgate Hill, E.C. 
THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY 
AND AFTER 
.,. ^ . ' MMiCn. 
The Empire : 
(1) The Organisation of the Empire; a Suggestion. By the Right Hon. 
llKIDiKliT SvMl H.. M.I'. 
(J) An Imperial Trade Policy. 
(3) The Empire and the New Protection 
The Pooole i.rMi^ th3 Party Machina. 
America and " Do ut Des." 
On the Manufacturing ot Grievances. 
Austria's Doom. 
I'he Future of Bohemia; 
(1) The Liberation of the Czecho-Slovaks. 
(2) Czech Claims and Magyar Intrigues. 
The Political Situation in Russia. 
" If a Man die, shall he live again?" (cortludedV 
A Plan proposed to the Bishops. 
The Future of the Bar. 
Women at ham^i and beyond th'. seas: an Anomaly. Ity \i,i,li.HKKTii IloniNS. 
Our Nu.'Sing Service in France. Iiv CMptain Harold lioii.TOS, C.V.O. 
Th3 Position of Shakespeare in England. Ity f)sr.*R Bi'.owsisr.. 
Our New French Paintings. By Sir Fbkuerick Wkbmore. 
The Tyranny of Fashion in War Time. By Jliss M. H. M.\sos. 
The Debt to the Disabled. By E. M. EoiiSTAM. 
Leagues *o enforce Peace ; 
(1) The Failure of the Holy Alliance. By Malor Sir .Iohn THi.i.. Bart. 
(2) An Illusion of To-riay. Hy llriaailior-ileneral F. G. .''tom:, OI.G. 
Tvoudnn : Spi.ttisufMidc, B,Tliant\ne &, Co., T.t^l.. 1, New Street Square. 
n.\' w. B.\sir, woRSpoi.n. 
BV Ut\RV Wll.SON I'ox, M.P. 
Hy J. O. P. Bl.AND. 
By MORKTON Frewbn. 
By Unrrii Sellers. 
By L.iDV P.»«ET. 
By .TOSEP FORMAN. 
By Fra.scis Gribble. 
By Hubert M.\ciiray. 
By H \ROLD F. Wtatt. 
By tlie Rev, HiBERT Handley. 
By .\RTHLm \. Bahmann. 
