19 MAY 1928, Page 21

Mr. Lewis Melville borrows his title, The Windsor Beauties (Hutchinson,

21s.) from the portraits of Court Beauties, by Sir Peter Lely, now hung at Hampton Court. These ladies were described by Anthony Trollope as "Female Insipidities." Considering the inane dispositions of these beauties and the monotonous regularity with which King Charles II. appropri- ated them, Mr. Melville has written a very readable book. It is packed with anecdote and gives a good picture of Court life, but there are too many quotations from Evelyn and Pepys. The chapter on Nell Gwynn is the best, for, of courEe, " Pretty Nelly " was the most impudent and fascinating of these " baggages." Her closest rival appears to have been Miss Arabella Churchill, but Barbara Villiers, Anne Hyde, and Louise de Keroualle were no laggards.

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