An American Girl in London. By Sara Jeannette Duncan. (Chatto
and Windus.)—This is a very entertaining account of England from a visitor's point of view, as any one who has read the lively account of the British Empire by the same writer, mis- leadingly called "A Social Departure," would be prepared to expect. The only objection to the book is its title, as Miss Duncan is not an American girl, in the sense in which we use the word, but a Canadian, and one cannot help fooling that the attempt at a Republican standpoint is a little strained. However, it is all, or nearly all, very amusing, and full of cool, critical humour. Among the best bits are the description of the awful dragon of "ray relation," on whom the (imaginary) Miss Mamie Wick, of Chicago, an unprotected young-lady traveller, was relying as her sole connection in England, her visits of exploration in Bloomsbury boarding-houses, and a day at Ascot. But perhaps the best of all is the young lady's introduction to the House of Lords by a jaunty, old Beer, who called her his little Yankee, talked to her as if she was a child of twelve, and, spite of red benches, so wholly con- fused her notions of aristocratic dignity and. historic grandeur, that she talks about"the Vice-Chancellor reading the Queen's letter" at the opening of Parliament.
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