iS 
LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershavv 
May 17, lyi; 
TO be well informed on all topics concerned with 
Britain beyond the Seas is a matter of paramount 
importance to every Englishman nowadays. The 
vaUie of what can be learnt on such subjects from 
books is no doubt as liable to be overestimated as it is to be 
underestimated. There arc some people who never learn 
anytiiing from books, just as there are some jieople who nev'er 
learn anything from travel. Something must be brought by 
tlie student both to the journey and to the book if he is to 
take awaVianything valuable. It is httle good hunting for 
ores unless one is something of a geologist. On the matter 
in question most of us have to depend chiefly on lH>oks and 
they are at any rate useful to all of us to correlate, confirm 
and classify information otherwise acquired. Moreover the 
desire to leani, bred of the new knowledge that the war has 
brought to many of us that we are not alone in the world, is 
the beginning oi wisdom. 
***** 
Such ])edag<igic retlections are induced by reading, Tlie 
New Map of A/rica, by HerlxTt Adams Gibbons (The Century 
Co.. S^.oo net), Cmtuda ihf Spfllhinder, by Lilian Whitin;.,' 
(J. M. Dent and Sons, (s.), and also two volumes of the 
British Kmpire Section of the excellent International In- 
formation Series (Allen and Unwin, Ltd. is. net each.) So 
much must be placed to the discredit of these books, for when 
they become reflective their style, hke mine, generally tends 
to be platitudinous. Otherwise I have nothing but good to say 
of them. Miss Whiting' s book may he described as a glorified 
guide-book with a good map and numerous photographs. 
In saying this I do not mean to disparage it, for I am one of 
those who love to travel by guide-book and do not disdain 
to use one when actually travelling — especially if there is 
glory in it. Miss Whiting takes one by rail from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, but stops continually to point out places of 
interest and beauty, and to recall, with pardonable pride, 
what the builders of Canada have achieved and how Canadians 
are developing the Dominion and adding to its renown. 
* * * * » 
Mr. IL A. Gibbons, formerly Professor of History at 
Kobert College, Constantinople, is already well known on 
this side of the Atlantic as the author of The New Map of 
Europe. It was evidently while compiling that book that 
he realised how large a part problems connected with Africa 
will play in any future settlement, and it was in the light of 
that discovery that he set to work to complete a book he 
had had in hand previously on Kuro]>ean Colonisation in 
Africa. The New Map of Africa is the fullest and most 
important book yet published on the historical geography.of 
the Dark Continent, whose darkness is now but a relative term. 
A mere glance at the political maps of Africa in 1850 and in 
1902 and at the railway map of 1914 will show both how 
greatly the tlarkness of Africa has been dispelled during 
quite recent times and how intricate a skein of diplomatie 
and warlike relations Mr. <>ibbons has set himself to 'unravel. 
He has made use of all available material in the way of books 
and has i)aid recent visits, with opportunities of reaching 
the best sources of information, to Kgypt and other places. 
'The result is a book of signal importance and interest. 
****** 
The two first volumes of their British Empire Scries issued 
by the International Information Committee are The Re- 
soi*rces of the Empire and The Defenees of the Empire. The 
former book is by Dr. J. Watson Grice and is a mine of valuable 
well arranged and easily assimilated inforniation. The 
other lx)ok is in the capable hands of Mr. Archibald Hurd. 
Both lx)oks are admirably suited for use in secondary 
schools, and dealing as they do with live subjects frf)m the 
vantage jxiint of the latest jxissible information, might well 
replace some of the dead and drv books on history and 
geography now in use. It is possible that there are occa.sion- 
ally views expressed which are not imiversaUy held, but -such 
views are ex])ressed temperately and the books are for the 
most part ])urely informative. 1 have not found any in- 
accuracies in thns<? ])oints J have tested by verification. 
***** 
Many of the sonnets, of which John Masefield's new 
volume, l.ollin'^don Downs and other I'nenix (Heinemans. 
3s. fxl. net), c'liiefly consists, are truly Shakespearean, not 
only in form but also in ease of diction. Their subjects are 
mainly a series of amplifications of the fiucslion, " Who and 
what am I ? " framed in a questing but not uniovful spirit of 
doubt. This, though by no means the most beautiful, may 
be taken as a characteristic sample : 
Is it a sea on which tfve souls embark 
Out of the body, as men put to sea ? 
()r do we come hke candles in the dark 
In the rooms in cities in eternity ? 
Is it a darkness that our flowers can light ? 
Is this, our httle lantern of man's love, 
A help to find friends wandering in the night 
In the unknown country with no star above ? 
Or is it sleep, unknowing, outlasting clocks 
That cmtlast men, that, though the (xjck crow ring. 
Is but one peace, of the substance of the rocks ; 
Is hut one -space in the now unquickened thing ; 
Is but one joy. that, though the million U»'c, 
Is one, always the same, one life, one fire ^ 
This is one Masefield, the exquisite lyrist. The other 
Masefield is also represented in this volume in sucj^ wise : 
" Stop Ix-ating sister, 
. Or by Cod I'll kill you ! " 
Kvrle was full of liquor. 
Old Kyrle .said : " Will yon ? " 
From a similar inspiration criticism too becomes colloquial and 
comments: " ^'ou pays your money" (as I hope you do, 
for the book is worth it) " and you takes your choice." 
**•**' 
While Masefield leaves the war alone in Lollingdon Do'tcnts, 
Charles Murray wiites A Sough o' U'er, (Constable; and Co. 
IS. net.) Here we learn once more from a musical lyrist 
of Scotland in the War : 
An' burrdly men, fae strath and glen, 
An' fhepherds fae the brecht an' hill 
Will show them a', whate'er beta', 
Auld .Scotland counts for something still. 
The dialect is not always easy for the' mere Southron' 
as in the argument to that charming j)oem " Hair}- Hears 
Jvie Home " ; 
The aul' man starts, gey grumbie as ye see, 
Syne the gweed-wife taks hand an' cairries on, 
Mary, the neiper lass pits something tee 
An' last comes Sandy — he's a nickum thon. 
But, let me reassure you there is a glossary ! 
***** 
It is by an easy stride that we get from verse to .•^hantinikelan 
(Macmilian and Co. 4s. M. net), which is the name of the famous 
school of Sir Rabindra Nath Tagorcj, where the poet's songs are 
sung by the pupils, morning and evening. The school and 
its aims arc very interestingly described by Mr. W. W. 
Pearson, who has e\idently come very completely under 
what we may perhaps be allowed to call its Montessoriental 
atmosphere, and who writes with a catching enthusiasm. 
The book also c(mtains a story told to the pupils by one c 
their favourite masters who has recently died— -a youth. I 
gather, of great promise. 
Burke's Peerage, once irreverently called the English gentle- 
woman's Hible, is a joy for ever to those who delight in 
tracing out the pedigrees or relationships of families possessing 
hereditary titles. Tlie edition of 1917 has just been issued 
by the Booksellers to the King, Messrs. Harrison and < o., 
4i, Pall Mall {(,2 2s.) As usual, it is edited by Mr. Ashworth 
Burke, who contributes a most interesting preface. A remark- 
able feature of the peerage history of iqib was the calling out 
of abeyance of five baronies, one of which, Strabolgi, had 
been in a state of suspended animation since i.^bg. It is^ 
curious to reflect that punishment incurred through com- 
plicity in the Walter Raleigh conspiracy of 1603, should only 
have been finally remitted in 1916. Such is the case of the 
baronies <-f Burgh and Cobham. The House of Lorfls, 
whatever may be its failings and <lefects, still contains repre- - 
sentatives of famous houses closely linked with the growth f 
and development of hmgland. It may be added that the 
older the house the more certain it is to have been the home 
of rebels at some period or other of its existence. 
Extreme care, as ustial, is taken in compihng these pages. 
The work has been immensely increa.sed by the war, with 
its tragic roll of honour and its long lists of promotions and 
rewards. Pew people realise the immensity of the labours 
involved in this task, but Burke has a great reputation to 
live uj) to aiul this volume of i<)i7, notwithstanding the matiy 
changes in both peerages and baronetages (luring the preceding 
twelve months, fully maintains its honourable record. This 
issue is ri>markable for the fact that the Royal peerages of 
Albanv and Cumberland are omitted from its naws. 
