13 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 19

" AINSLIE GORE: A SKETCH FROM LIFE "— FACT, NOT

FICTION.

[TO THE EDITOR Or el. ...SPECTATOR...1 Stn,—Your correspondent " C. L. D.," in your issue of last week, assumes that Ainslie Gore is " fiction," and that of "an equivocal type" as trying to arouse the reader's sympathetic interest by "a work of fiction carefully dressed up to look like fact." In the interests of the author, we beg to say that, as indicated in the sub-title, "A Sketch from Life," the book hi, we have every assurance, fact throughout, every incident being true and the conversations having taken place with the author, often noted at the time and always easily recalled. All the country characters are or were old friends of the author. The only fiction in the book is the fictitious name "Ainslie Gore." Your reviewer was right, in common with the Press generally, in accepting the work as genuine biography. In reviewing it the Field spoke of the book as "an exceedingly interesting life sketch of a member of an old Gloucestershire family."—We are, Sir, Le.,