NOTES AND NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14841, 18 November 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

NOTES AND NEWS.

The revelations of tho ex-Crown Princess of Saxony are not to be allowed to go unanswered. • I am informed (says tho London correspondent of the Liverpool Post) that a personage of distinction in German diplomacy and politics is already engaged upon a work which will deal directly with the Royal house of Saxony, and indirectly with the* ex-Crown Princess's account 'of its manners and methods. Moreover, an attempt will be made to throw some light on the lady's temperament by stories of her own life. There will, according to my informant, be a British edition of the book. . . , . .... • . •

The ex-Queen of Saxony, whose memoirs are being so widely read, was in London when they appeared. She made (says the Book Monthly) a very agreeable impression on those who met her, alike for charm of manner and intellectual ability. It is not true, however, that she is seriously going ,to " commence authorship," even write a novel.

George Eliot thus pictured herself in a letter written to a correspondent in - 1873 • I confess I tremble a little at the prospect of your seeing me ■in the flesh. At present I have the charm of a "Yarrow unvisited." As to the portrait, I am not one bit like it—besides, it was taken eight yeans ago. Imagine a first cousin of the old —rather smoke-dried face with linos in it that seem a map of sorrows. These portraits seen beforehand are detestable introductions, only lees advantageous than a description given by an ardent friend to ono who is neither a friend nor ardent.