17 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 37

RECORDS OF AN ANCIENT FAMILY. By J. E. Ottley. (Selwyn

and Blount. 7s. 6d.)

This recorder does not weary us by over-insistence on one family. She compiles a short "History of England" such as the late Mrs. henry Wood might have written. We learn that "the archer's bow was a bending piece of wood, used on stringed instruments, which forced an arrow placed on the string to a great distance." Also that, at one time, "owing to the confused state of the language people could not write intelligibly." This old difficulty of her ancestors Miss Ottley has not, even yet, quite overcome. Nevertheless, it is refresh- ing to discover so ingenuous a little book in these days of dull competence.

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