STRONG, BRAVE MARY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 18 September 1937, Page 18

STRONG, BRAVE MARY

The Stout Adventure of Mary Stewart. By the Hon. RuaraidJi Erskinc of Marr. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 191 pp. (10/6 net.) “To fathom the secrets of the female heart, to explain with success, beyond all manner of doubt, the different twists and turns of woman’s nature, were surely extremely hard to be done.” With such reflections, written with a somewhat antiquated dignity and with challenging truculence, does Erskine of Marr besprinkle his pages. Those who have read his previous work will relish again his enthusiastic partisanship and his mannered prose. His prejudices are no great impairment—Erskine English is catching—of his history, for what he writes is the conclusion of years of thought, of a knowledge of ail authorities, and of a sincere Scottish patriotism. His chief argument is that the core of Mary’s policy was always to obtain the succession to the English throne, an aim fostered by her advisers at St. Dizier, and an aim justified by her son’s accession to that throne. Mr Erskine observes that historians have paid much attention to the last three years of Mary’s reign, little to the first four, and asserts that she was all the time working for and obeying her French advisers, whose efforts were unrelaxing. For Darnley Mr Erskine finds a few new words of condemnation, but thinks that his mother was foremost in the conspiracy to make him King and that it is doubtful if his fellow-conspirators would consent in that purpose. Mr GoreBrowne, author of the most recent biography of Bothwell, is censured for accepting too readily the idea of this conspiracy to make Darniey King; its improbability is sufficient I reason for Mr Erskine’s disbelief. ! George Buchanan, a Latin secretary, | author of most of the scandals about I Mary and Bothwell, is alleged to be ! quite capable of the forgeries of the ; Casket Letters. ; Two comments remain to be made. I First, that no historian is quicker |to see than Mr Erskine the small : causes that may alienate great ; people. One instance is given: Mary | Stewart’s sharp tongue, which offended both Catherine de Medici ! and Elizabeth Tudor. The second is i the title of the book, “The Stout Ad-

venture of Mary Stewart”; despite all her faults, Mary is a heroine, resolute, bold, and enduring.