From _The Personal Remembrances_ of Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK (MACMILLAN &
CO.) I had, I confess, expected a great deal more than I found in the
two volumes. And I hold that I had a right to expect something more than
usually interesting from the Remembrances of the Queen's Remembrancer.
What Sir FREDERICK remembers as Remembrancer to the QUEEN is
very little, though quite sufficient for the office; but his own
recollections as his own Remembrancer are very pleasant reading, being
full of information given in an, unpretentious conversational style,
about Cambridge University life, the Bench and the Bar, and Literary
Society generally. There is a good deal of eating and drinking
recorded--not too much, perhaps, for the necessities of social life; and
the "C. C. S.," or Cambridge Conversazione Society seems to have been
very regular in its intellectual gatherings at various places where good
food is provided. This Club, limited to twelve members, was called
somewhat profanely "The Twelve Apostles," though of what they were
Apostles I cannot make out. They have evidently an Apostolic Succession,
as the Club is still in existence, I believe. Altogether, among this
sudden glut in the market of literary confidences in the shape of ducal,
journalistic, artistic, and egotistic recollections, this may be taken
up as a chatty and readable book.
[Illustration: Odd Volumes.]
_Woman's World_ for December, edited by our OSCAR WILDE, is full of
woman's wit, and some of the illustrations, especially in the department
of The Fashions, are charming. What a change from the old style of
painted doll inanities, dressed up in a style never seen in real life!
The picture of the three pretty women preparing for a ball is a candle
to attract male moths--"male moths" being obviously the opposite to
"ma'am--moths," as that undefeated punster SAMUEL JOHNSON would have
said under certain circumstances. Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED'S account of Royat
is very amusing; but, though I have been several times up to La
Charrade, yet never have I had the good fortune to come across Madame
GRENON, who, if her portrait, as given in this number, is a genuine
likeness, ought to be one of the attractions of the environs of Royat.
Good, honest, kindly faces I saw at Charrade, but why this uncommonly
pretty one hid herself, as she must have done whenever she saw this
distinguished water-drinker coming to Charrade is a charade to me. The
general remarks on the Stage by the lamented Authoress of _John
Halifax_, whose recent loss we all deplore, are very interesting, as
recording the impressions of a good, pure-minded woman, whose
acquaintance with the _vie intime_ of the Theatre was limited. The
portraits of Miss ANDERSON are not particularly flattering--rather
shady, which is the one thing that no one shall ever unchallenged say of
our sweet and gentle _Perdita_ in the hearing of your rather deaf