A Year-Book of Mary Queen of Scots. By A. A.
Methven. (T. N. Penns. 2s. 6d. net.)—Mary Queen of Scots. By Walter Wood. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s. net.)—Mary Queen of Scots diffused so mesmeric a charm that all the cold research of historians still leaves devout believers in her spotless innocence. Thus Miss Methven finds it "impossible to believe that a woman, gifted with her noble qualities and strong religious convictions, could have stooped to such a deed of treachery as the cold-blooded murder of Darnley, or that she was the writer of the Casket Letters." Yet Swinburne accepted the authenticity of the Casket Letters on the ground that they were beyond the skill of forgery ; and Andrew Lang finally had to admit that the weight of evidence was in favour of the crucial " Glasgow letter," which effect- ually establishes Mary's complicity in the tragedy of Kirk o' Field. Mr. Wood's book seems to have been "written up to" the coloured illustrations by Sir James Linton and Mr. James Orrock. It is curious that the picture of Mary's execution should show her at the block in a black dress: she wore red.
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