14 MAY 1927, Page 40

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OSCAR BROWNING. By H. C. Wortham. Illustrated. (Constable. 16s.)—Happy in the varying complexity Of his subject, which he handles with a pleasant humour, with an impartial irony and a gift of sane judgment that can call a spade a spade and a humbug a humbug whenever necessary, Mr: Wortham has provided us with a sort of running commentary on the Memories which Oscar Browning has already published of himself. But Mr. Wortham has done more than this : he has s,opplied a missing chapter of those Memories—and 'a vividly interesting chapter it is— no less than a full account of the famous Browning-Hornby quarrel which ended the former's career as an Eton master. 0. B. wanted to liberalize Eton and Etoa did not wish to be liberalized. He also attempted to foster in the greatest of our public-schools a love of intellect and to dis- courage the worship of athleticismr and he -was defeated on both fronts. His aims were laudable, but his means were not always discreet, and Mr. Wortham, in doing justice to both, perhaps takes us as far as any one can in letting us see the real man. Mackie is mentioned in the course of the book, and between the Scotch Professor and the Cambridge Don there is much akin. Both were egotists, with a touch of the charlatan—" 0. B.'s thoughts never strayed far from the first person "—but as a mask to a deep-seated egotism both men displayed a- child-like naiveté ; • both Pussessed assertive, self-confident, busy, and expansive personal' which brought them, however, but little • worldly success; but both had in them streaks of genius and in both there existed an abiding love for the humanities in the fullest sense of the term. The whole book is a fine piece of literature.

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