AN IMPENITENT VICTORIAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26472, 28 May 1947, Page 2

AN IMPENITENT VICTORIAN

Lady Monkswell’s Diaries

A Victorian Diarist. Later Extracts from the Journals of Mary Lady Monkswell, 1895-1909. Edited by the Hon. E. C. F. Collier. John Murray, 16s.

This sequel to the very successful earlier Diaries covers a period full of interest, including as it does, the Diamond Jubilee, the South African War, and the reign of Edward VII. To every collector of Victoriana this book will be a delight. Lady Monkswell was an impenitent Victorian and her Diaries, while often illuminated with flashes of genuine wit, are also refreshing in their revelation of an outlook

and an attitude of mind now almost entirely vanished. Lady Monkswell, wife of an exCabmet Minister, and related to many interesting people, moved in the Very best circles, and met the very best people. Her innocent delight in meeting them is set down quite without reserve, and her little triumphs when she is invited to some function which she had hardly hoped to attend are communicated with a refreshing candour. The fact is, she was something of a of a snob, but it was a harmless snobbery, and, from her upbringing and environment it was almost inevitable. Lady Monkswell was neither an outstanding personality nor a strong enough character to escape the failings of her age. She clearly expected people to be contented with the stations in which Providence had seen fit to place them, but within her limitations she was kind-hearted and she was evidently well liked. It is, indeed, her very ordinariness that makes this book so valuable, for she lived entirely enclosed in the temperature and climate of her time, and as a result she was particularly fitted to transport us to that time by her writings. In some ways fjiis book will be of more interest to the older generation, for it will be powerful to recall that vanished Golden Age when the Pax Brittanica seemed unshakable and the whole world listened when British statesmen spoke. But it will also be of interest to others for its authentic note, and for the warm humanity of Lady Monkswell’s observations upon the famous figures of her time. This is the sort of book that colours the cold pages of the history books. As a footnote to the history of the times it is worthy of a place on any shelf. P. H. W. N.