If a double-page review were wasted on Mr. Donald Barr
Chidsey's Marlborough (Murray, 15s.), it would hardly be enough to set forth the errors of fact with which the book fairly bristles. Perhaps Mr. Chidsey's two crowning glories are the statenients that "the father of James the Second's first wife" went in tears to the King in 1688, though the Earl of Clarendon was dead fourteen years before, and that James V of Scotland married his own mother. Mr. Chidsey, who is an American journalist and has been a contributor to" the old Smart Set magazine," is described by his publishers as possessing a "profound knowledge of his subject." The value of his historical knowledge and judgment may be partially estimated by his declaration that Charles II was "a great king," and by his description of the statuesquely beautiful Claverhouse as "a peppery little fellow adoringly called 'Bonnie Dundee.'" As to style, two or three of the author's chapter headings, like " Languors of Love," "Whis- pers Whispers," and "Buttered Side Up," may indicate the method which the author selects for the treatment of his hero, who appears variously as "Jack Churchill," Colonel Jack," "Our Jack," and once as "Baron of Churchill," while hiseldest- born son is alluded to as "Jack jr." For the rest, Mr. Chidsey admits that Marlborough, incomparable soldier as he was, was mean, dishonest, a traitorous double-dealer and a snob, but adds that it is "preposterous to judge him by modern standards." We cordially agree with Mr. Chidsey's own estimate of his book that it is "a parasite's job, resting on the labor of other men, worthier students," and are only sorry that he has not paid more attention to the facts with which those others could have provided him. But it is, however, fair to say that the book has a certain smartness about it, as indeed is to be expected from a practised journalist.
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