I« 
LAND & WATER 
October 25, 1917 
tions upon Honour: Vincent de Paul is sure of finding 
loUowcrs in his cliaritable mission. . . , All the gestures 
of our past, all the noble testimonies of to-day collected here. 
are only the product of a single, simplified conception ot 
1-Vance— the champion of right iu the world. Each of us 
knows that the Trench are there in order that there may be 
less unhappiness among men. In this sense France is 
■• pacifist " ; in this sense she is warlike. The notion niat 
this war must be the last is an old popular notion. " We 
must suffer; our children will be happier ! " 
Thus does Maurice Harres found his liope of an enduring 
.-uncord on the persuasive evidence of a fruitful diversity. 
Books of the Week 
Letters to Helen. The impressions of an .\rtist on the Western 
Front. Illustrated. By Keith Henderson. (Chatto and 
Windus, 6s. net). 
The Path to Rome. By HiJaire Belloc. Fourth Edition. 
(George .\llen and L'nwin, 3s. 6d. 
The Long Trick. By " Bartimcus," author of A Tall Shi/y. 
(Cassell, 6s.) 
Our Girls in Wartime. Rhymes, Xry Hampden Cordon. - 
Pictures by Joyce Dennys. (John Lane, The Bodley 
Head, 3s. bd. net). 
KEITH HENDERSON occupies an honourable 
position among the little company of artist fighting- 
men, who have done so much to bring home to 
slithered folk the actual conditions under which the 
war is being fought in France and Flanders. His paintings 
convey not merely the abomination of desolation wrought 
by modern man's mechanical weapons of destruction, but the- 
triumph of Nature which seems ever to be working for beauty 
and peace against the apparently senseless human mania 
for the rev-erse. In this intimate volume we see as it were the 
mind of the artist at work ; his intense love not only for the 
pleasure of the eye but for all mortal things, animals as. 
well as human beings, which are moved by sympathy. His 
Letters to Helen are a reflection of a charming temperament ; 
they demonstrate beyond question how warfare humanises 
the soul of man, and only dehumanises where the soul or 
li\ang spirit is absent. It is a book which we can well imagine 
men at the Front will delight to send to wommkind at home 
whom they love — an intimate book, which expresses thoughts 
and ideas we believe to be common to the best type of Briton. 
***** 
That glorious ebullition of a healthy, hearty, full-blooded 
man in complete harmony with God, the world and himself, 
which goes by the name of The Path to Rome, and whose 
auctor is one Hilaire Belloc, has just been issued in a new 
edition. It is too late in the day to make any comment on 
this verbal cataract of wit, wisdom, and pure joy of life, 
but those who in times past have delighted in it — their name 
is Legion — and who would like to pass on the pleasure to 
others have now a new opportunity. 
***** 
In the course of his first long novel. The Long Trick, 
" Bartimeus " confesses that it is " an endeavour to trace the 
threads of certain lives a little way through a loosely woven 
fabric of great events." that is to say, it is hardly a novel 
in the ordinary sense of the word. The Indiarubbei Man is 
there, and his friends are there, but on the whole they are 
mere accessories to a picture of the Grand Fleet in harbour 
aiid in action, and the book will be read — and remembered — 
because it is the most vivid picture of the Fleet and its 
activities that has yet been made. Out of these pages one 
may gain acquaintance with the sailor man of all ranks, 
at work and play — and fighting too, for there is given a sailor's 
view of the battle of Jutland, a view which will go far to 
correct the nonsense that has been talked regarding that 
battle. " Bartimeus " is a master of the right kind of 
realism ; one understands, in reading, that the writer has not 
to depend on imagination for any of his chapters, but that he 
saw what he describes, and describes all in such manner that 
the reader can see it too. The result is not a conventional 
story, but a view of the Navy as a whole, with certain recog- 
nisable figures who, though in the foreground of the view, 
exemplify rather than obscure this admirable picture of the 
life of the Grand Fleet, and the complementary lives of the 
women who wait on shore. 
***** 
Our Hospital A. B.C. was a flippant book of verse and 
sketch which caused no little amusement in hospitals, V.A.I), 
and others, last winter. The same authors— Hampden 
Gordon and Joyce Dennys— have just brought out a com- 
panion volume entitled Our Girls in JVartime. It is good 
fooling, and shows beneath it a genuine admiration of what 
" our girls " are doing. There is plentv of laughter here, for 
it is chaff, good, honest, Wholesome chaff, right through. 
THE 
CHURCH ARMY 
has many hundreds of 
RECREATION HUTS, 
TENTS AND CENTRES 
At Home and Abroad, for the Spirit- 
ual, Moral and Physical Welfare of 
our gallant Soldiers and Sailors, in- 
cluding 200 UNDER SHELL FIRE. 
MORE ARE 
URGENTLY WANTED 
Also good provision of COMFORTS 
for the Approaching Winter, 
Huts cost £500 
Tents i£300 SHrpp^d 
Cheques crossed " Barclay's, a/t Church Army," 
payable to Prebendary Carhle.D.D., Hon. Chief 
Sec, Headquarters, Bryanston Street, Marble 
Arch, London, W.I. 
Behind the Firing Line 
The most remarkable and vivid im- 
pression of the battle area in France 
and Flanders is to be obtained from the 
series of engravings in colour by ^Captain 
Handley Read, just published by the 
Leicester Galleries. 
A limited number of copies of this Portfolio 
may be obtained, price £5 Ss. each, from " Land 
& Water," 5 Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2. 
THE NATION'S FUND 
FOR NURSES. 
One of the most deserving objects of support at the prfesent 
time is the Nation's Fund for Nurses, which aims at assuring 
aid for such nurses as have lost their health during the war. 
In addition to providing a benevolent fund for individual 
nurses, this scheme is intended to provide endowment for the 
College of Nursing, which has been founded to provide a 
central organisation representative of the nursing profession, 
elected by nurses and intended to win recognition for the 
nursing profession. The Fund has the support, among others, 
of Sir Arthur Stanley, chairman of the British Red Cros.s 
Society, and of Sir Douglas Haig, both of whom are keenly 
interested in tlie scheme. Contributions to the Fund will be 
welcomed, no matter how small they may be, by the Honorary 
Treasurer, the Viscountess Cowdray, at 16, 'Carlton House 
Terrace, S.W. i, or at 21, Old Bond Street, W. i. 
