Mr. Meade Minnegerode, if comparisons are not odious, may be
designated as the Lytton Strachey of the United States, for he has the latter's verve and subtlety, and his power of illuminating a crowded canvas, although not, perhaps, his narrative power. In Some Mariners of France (Putnam, 21s.) he has gathered together stories of French ships and sailors and nautical kings : it is a picturesque pageant of culverincs and carronades, "great-handed men with pig- tailed hair " stripped to the waist at their gun ports, and tall ships with top gallants set, taut and trim from truck to keelson. Perhaps a little less allusiveness and rather more chronological sequence would have made the book easier to read right through. Mr. Minnegerode's method is ornate and discursive, yet, taken individually, each chapter will be found to reveal wide learning and good craftsmanship.
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