BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 14162, 11 September 1909, Page 4

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

‘The Wooden Hofse.’ By Hugh Walpole. I/>ndon: G. Bell and Sons. Dunedin ; W hitcombe and Tombs. Tho above is a clever study in temperaments. ’file writer expresses himself clearly, makes his points neatly, and writes with an air of cultured ease'. There c little that is conventional, a moderate admixture only of the artificial—introduced, we suspect, in deference to that largo number who insist ou t"-ery laddie having his lassie—and an overwhelming proportion of happy allusion, good-natured satire, and excellent character-drawing. Tho Trojans are a Cornish family who have been settled at Pcr.dragon for countless generations. Mid they have no possible doubt that the irorld is made up of “Us—and tho Others.” “ If yon wove t one of tho others—if thev' Was a hesitation about your aspirates, if you used a spoon and fork for sweets, if you wore a tail coat and brown hoots—then you wore non-existent, you simply did not count.” the living representatives of I he family, when it is introduced to the reader, / include the head of the house, Sir Jeremv. who is over eighty, and secretiv rele'is’ against the Trojan’ outlook and ’deed a- ■ embodied by Miss Clare, hk daughter; ! Garrett, his second son ; and Robin, hi,grandson. We feel som for Robin, . vc though he is the logical fruit o’f his aunt'-, and uncles training, and little more than an educated and refined cad. " At his private school ho was taught the great- code of brushing one's hair and leaving the bottom button of one’s waistcoat* undone. Robbery, murder, rape—well, they had all played their part in Trojan history, but the art of slinking hands and tic correct method of .snubbing a pom- relation, if properly acquired, covered the crimes of tho Decalogue.” To this not wholly mill kablc quartet enters ‘■the Wooden Horse” that is to upset and overthrow the Trojan citadel even as the concealed Creeks of old .captured and made havoc of long-liei-icgi'd /Ilium.. Harry Trojan is (he wooden hor-e. Twenty years before the story ojiens Han v. the eldest son, ha I quarrelled with his father, left. 1 1 is; home- and gone in 'or shcop-faiming and < ther things in (he North Island of New Zealand He man tel tho daughter of an. Auckland doctor.-and rent their child, at the age of two year-, on its mothers deatli, home to Cornu all lo bo trained in the Trojan household. Eighteen years later, having made money, ;red longing for a glimpse of the old scenes h e returns, and the story of the hook is slory of his reception bv his relatives, his mistakes, his enthusiasms, and his final triumph. With the exception of his lather, who whispers that ‘‘he is gin! to sec him,'’ brother, sister, and son gard him as impossible. Why. it is somewhat hard to say, even though Air Walpole's object and intention are obvious. We cannot admit that a man who lor many years had tho entry of the best society and clubs in Auckland would not have "a decent dress suit, that his clothes would on ill-fitting, and that kis manners "would merit the term “vulgarity,” That they might not roach the Trojan standard we can understand—nothing intelligently miraan could—but wo dissent from the implication that badly-fitting clothes and • doubtful manners are inevitable in a colonial gentleman. Harry Trojan istliroimhout a man and a. gentleman, and the author deftly, skilfully, and naturally traces his rapid adaptation lo an environment- that at first had proved so bitterly disappointing. ‘The Wooden Horse’ is hardly the sort of book to become widely popular, but ■ at is an exceedingly interesting and’able sketch of a phase of modern life and manHers, and will repay peru?al. *A Chinm> Vengeance.’ Bv Jl. A. Kent. Sydney: New South Wales Bookstall Company. Mr Rent liar, invited his readers to sup full of horrors. To the traditional hero heroine, and villain who, though Canton ho the background, do much the same things in much tho same wav as stage and “shocker” heroes, heroines, and villains .have done these many years past. Air Kent has added several clover Chinamen, who invoke the aid of the Tamnsi—a secret ovgauisation— to track down the had eggs. Chinese- Australian emigrants, who are shipped in rotten hulks, from which the 'bottoms fall out, and other sensational extravagances that should satisfy the most seasoned skimmer of novels. The story is coaifio in fibre and lurid in coloring, bin for Us kind it is not wholly bad. ‘ HARR 1 SON AINSWORTH’S HOME. i About a milo from Ken,sal Green Coni"- i tcry, where Harrison Ainsworth was buried, there stands on tho Harrow road an oMlashioned plaster-fiicod house, with a HHi garden wall, known by tho name of the Manor House. There was a local belief that the house was built by the novelist, bnt when a few months ago it was E-reM ,Ur-n° proprietor of the local journal the ' vVmidden Citizen,’ there was some <lis-I put© m the district as to the correctness of tho tradition. Tho owner of the house, however, possesses the payors, and has now proved that this was really the novelist’s homo in the forties. In the library, on the right, with a window to the street, or in the garden under tho twisted oak tree that gives a needed touch of tho grotesque and ago to tho dry gentility of the architecure, Ainsworth is said to have written ‘(Juv Fawkes,’ ‘Old St. Raul’s,’ ‘St. James';;'.’ ‘Windsor Castle,’ ‘The Miser’s Daughter’ and 1 Tho Lancashire Witches.’ Tho house is typical of good suburban houses of the early Victorian period. The library contains some of the bookcases shown in a Cmikshanks's drawing of Ainsworth at home. The drawing room, which is on tho simo floor, with windows m a large, flattened bay opening on the lawn, has the old glass cupboards for china on either side of the fireplace A peculiarity of the house is the teii bedrooms ou tho top floor, which indicates the truth of Ainsworth’s reputation for hospitality. Thackeray and CTuikshanks (who also he at Kensal Green), Dickens and -ter■rokl, were frequent visitors here. It is said that Dickens first met Pester at the Manor House. Although the city of tho living and tho city of the dead have spread out to it, the house has still many country features. The long garden behind the wall has been much neglected, but in its tangle there Is still abundance of fruit and oTdfashioned flowers. York and Lancaster roses that Ainsworth is said to have planted are blooming there just now. and many oldfashioned single roses, zaringa, marigolds, pinks, and hollyhocks are running wild. | Little red apples and black cherries are hanging on the trees, and there is a promise of peaches on the wall. A luxuriant vino has hurst from the wall lo the ground. _ Tho little p>avcd courtyard at the stables is green and sturdy with weeds, the bell has gone from the stable belfry. At one end of tho house is a colonnade, where a great printing machine is being set up, where Ainsworth and his friends' are said to have sat and listened to the nightingales. Tho new tenant is bringing the garden hack to trim ness, but he will preserve its old-fashioned character, and little will be altered in the house as long as ho has possession. EARLY BEGINNERS. When John Stuart Mill was three years old ho was initiated by his stern father into tho Greek language. When Isaac Watts was three ho could read the Bible, and if ho received any little present of money he would coni* running to his parent, crying eagerly : A hook, a book ! Buy a book !” Jonathan Swift could read any chapter in tho Bible at three years of age. Of Kingsley it is said that he had preached a sermon when four years old, and that he wrote poems before he was five. Mozart at four composed melodies, which his father wrote from his dictation. Among tho early sketches of Sir Edwin Landseer, now in possession of the British nation, is one of a foxhound, drawn from the life at the age of five. Allan Cunningham says that it is quite marvellous for its_ thorough conception of form and appreciation of character. When Mozart was little more than five he took part in the comedy ‘ Sigis mundus Hungarian Rex,’ performed in the Hall of the University of Salzburg in 1761. This was his first public appearance. Miss Y'onge, a careful observer, in her ‘ Life of John Coleridge Patteson,’ tho martyr bishop, J Mm kdifid ialBTJ* i* his .foriflj-fifth.

year, by the natives in one of tho South Sea Islands, says : “ Five years old is in many cases tho age of a great deal of thought. The intelligence is free from the misapprehension and misty perceptions of infancy; the first course of physical experiments is over, freedom of speech and motion have been attained, 'and yet there has not set in that burst of animal growth and spirits that often seems to swamp the deeper nature throughout boyhood.” Young Patteson was able to road*at that time, and received on his fifth birthday from his father the present of a Bible. He read it eagerly, puzzled his brains' as to what became of the fish during the Flood, and, when suddenly called to the nursery, bogged to bo allowed to ‘ finish tho binding of Satan for a thousand years.’’’ Claudius Clear, ‘British Weekly.’ THE LATE MISS CAREY. I.overs of wholesome literature will regret to learn of the death of Miss Rosa Nonchetto Carey, which occurred at her residence at Putney. Alins Carey was educated at the Ladies' Institute. St. John’s Wood. She published her first novel, ‘ Nellie's Memories.’ in 1868. and in 1871, ‘ Barbara Jleatheote's Trial ’ was published, which did much towards establishing her reputation as a writer of admirable books for girls. Since then she has written more I ban thirty novels, among them being ‘ Queenie's Whim’ (1881). ‘ My Lady frivol ’ (1899), and ‘ No I 1 rier.d Like a Sister ’ (1906). ‘The Angel of 1 orgiveness ' (1907) was the last book she published. Miss Gaivv was, like the hde “Allen hame. not acknowledged by the literary critic, though the circulating library welcomed her gladly. The ein illation of her thirty novels was proha lily among tho widest ot her time. There was a day when popularity went hand in hand with expert appreciation. 1 hat is now changed. Several of the most popular authors of the last ten years are these that- no so-called or sell-styled critical reader ever thinks of reading. DEATH OF LADY PRIESTLEY. the deatli is announced in the ‘Times’ <>f Eady Priestley, one of the eight daughters of Robert- Chambers, the publisher, and tho author of ‘ The Vestiges of Cication. She was bom in 1836, and in 1856 married Dr William Overend Priestley. assistant to Sir Janies Simpson. Bad.v Priestley, in ‘The Story of a Lifetime,’ which she published last autumn, describes the struggles and difficulties of her early married life, for the young people began with nulliing except an unpaid appointment in Jioridon and a capital sum of £I,OOO given them bv her iather. But by 1867 Dr Priestley had prospered so much that the couple were able to take the. large house, 17 Hertford street, where they lived till the last of the eeuhiry. Dr Priestley was knighted in 1090, am! three years later was elected, without a contest, M.P. lor Edinburgh ami St. Andrew’s Universities. Ho died in 1900. A BYROX LAWSUIT. Colonel Seely. Under-Secretary for the Colonies, in a recent speech on laud taxes ■it Rochdale, made ingenious use by wav of illustration of Byron’s ownership and ‘sale of the manor of Rochdale. Few of ns remember nowadays that Rochdale has this old link with tho poet of revolution, though the mellowed red brick million' house still stands by the dark river in the middle of the town. The manor of Rochdale had belonged to the Byrons of Ncwstoud from some time in the seventeenth century. .Six Byrons altogether were lords of the manor. In 1791 began a long lawsuit between the Byrons ami certain tenants of tho manor, which dragged on for thirty years before the poet exchanged his manorial rights for cash. It was mainly a quarrel about the right to get- coal out of the manorial pit-s. I'ho thing becomes really interostinnwhen, in 1822, we find Byron writing from Genoa a characteristic letter to the other party to tho case offering peace. "We have been eighteen years at law,” ho save, u ith various success. Of the original suit I have no great knowledge. I inherited it, and was a child when it began, and for aught I know may arrive a-t second childhood before it terminates.” He is obviously impatient of the law’s delays, and asks whether there could not be a private settlement. ‘‘ I am,” he adds, " .mother instigated by avidity nor necessity in making the offer. Next year, it seems, Byron came over to England* and to Rochdale to settle matters, and he tinallv sold Ids manorial rights to an ancestor of tho present owner. 1 hero are curious glimpses of Byron’s stay at Hopwood Hall at this time. He ‘‘made himself afv.cptable to the ladies,” and was lionised by thorn. He abstained from animal food, and ate mostly pickles and vegetables. THE BEVENPEXXY NOVEL. Sevenpenny novels—good type, cloth hound, marvellous value !—are threatened bv tho Publishers’ Association. We are not surprised that they should make an effort to raise tho minimum price from sevenpence to a shilling. But wo arc surprised to hear that "some of the authors, - ’ whoso standing, by the way, indicated, do not agree with the publishers, and argue that sevenpenny editions have not- killed tho sale of six-shilling editions —" tlult died automatically.” .Vow, the six-shiliiug edition is not dead yet. It is, however, a mistake to presume, as it is presumed, that people who can afford six shillings will continue to give that price if they can. get tho same book for sevenpicncc. Ruskiu used to complain that English people do not- buy books. Mr Andrew Lang is always saving that English people do not even read books—good books. Iho lact is that as a body they will not pay more for a book than they need pay. If they can get it for coppers they will not sacrifice shillings. The sevenpenny edition is like tho theatre pit; people who drive in their carriages will take advantage of it. We are not decrying the cheap edit ion. It is a boon to everybody if it can be produced at a living rate of profit. Bui it is absurd for ".some of the authors' 1 to maintain that authors would nut suffer from the death of the six-shilling novel. \\ hat the author who commands a steady sale thinks of tho question is shown by bis refusal to adopt tho sevenpenny form to anv comtirehtusive extent.—’ Bt. James's Gazette.'* PROFESSOR'S " BEST BOOKS.” Dr Eliot, late professor of Harvard University, ban made public a partial list of the twenty-five volumes which constitntc his fivo-foot-she!f library, which, some weeks ago, he declared would give any man the essential-; of a liberal education. Tho London ‘Daily Telegraph’ gives the selection : ( ‘Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,’ ‘ Journal of John Woolinan,’ ‘ Fruits of Solitude,’ by William Penn, Bacon's ‘ Ecisays ’ and 1 Tin; New Atlantis,’ Miltons ‘ Areopagiiica ’ and ‘Tractate on Education, Sir Ihe mas Browne’s ‘Religio Medici,’ Plates ‘Apology,’ ‘ Phscdo,’ and ‘ Orito,’ ‘ The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, ‘ Meditations of Marcus Aurelius,’ Emerson’s ‘ Essays’ and ‘ English Traits,’ ‘ Complete Poems of Milton,’ Ben Jonson’s ‘ Volponc,’ Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘ The Aluicl s tragedy,’ Webster’s ‘Duchess of Math, -Middleton’s ‘ The Changeling,’ Drydon’fi ‘ --All for Love,’ Shelley’s ‘‘Cenci,’ Browning’s ‘Blot on the Stutchoon,’ Tenni'sons 1 Beckct,’ Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ Marlowe s ‘Dr taustus,’ Adam Smith’s ‘ Wealth of Nations,’ ‘ Tho Letters of Cicero and Pliny,’ Bnnyan’s ‘ Pilgrim’s Progress,’ Burns’s ‘ Tara o’ Shunter,’ Walton’s ‘ Corapleat Angler,’ ‘ The Lives of Donne and Herbert,’ ‘ Autobiography of St. Augustine,’ Plutarch’s ‘Lives,’ Drvden’s ‘ TEneid,’ Chaucer's ‘ Canterbury Tales,’ The Imitation of Christ ’ by Thomas ft Kempis, Dante’s ‘ Divine Comedy,’ Darwin’s ‘ Origin of Species,’ and ‘ The Arabian Nights.’ The Wordsworth Concordance, prepared by forty collaborators under the direction of Professor Lane Cooper, of Cornell, js now finished, and contains some 200,000 entries.