21 OCTOBER 1911, Page 23

DURBAR ANTHOLOGY:a

HERE is a pretty little book, with an appropriately Oriental binding, well printed on thick paper, a book which visitors to the Coronation Durham might well put into their travelling bags. There Can be no injustice in connecting its publication with forthcoming events in Delhi, for the concluding chapter is headed " Former Dtzrbars at Delhi." 134 good wine is not affected by the bush under which it is sold, and in the very mixed medley of quotations from Indian. and Anglo-Indian sources which Mr. Claud Field has collected are many excellent things, old and new, which it is a pleasure to meet in so agreeable and accessible a form. We have here brief but instructive glimpses at Early Travellers in India, the Romance of Indian History, the British Raj, Camp Life, Cantonment Life, Native Life, the Women of India, the Sahib as the Indian sees him, Scenes of the Mutiny, the Frontier (which is, of course, the north- western frontier, the Abors, Akas, Dallas, and Bhutiyas of the even more interesting north-eastern frontier still lacking their vales sailer), Native Leaders and Prophets (among whom it is pleasant to find a brief account of that really great man Ram Mohan Roy), Missionary Work, Soldiers of • The legacy of Pain tarn r A Stitdy of Trish History. By the Earl' of Dux:raven. London John Murray. C7a. 43d. net.] f The Charm of Rides • Ati Anthology). Bdit by Claud Biel& London': Morbert and Daniel nen} Fortune (Sombre and his famous Begum, Le Vassoult and George Thomas), Anglo-Indian Eccentrics (among whom it is surprising to find the name of Job Cbarnock coupled with that of Thomas Coryat), Sport in India (of course), three Folktales from the Abbe Dubois and one from W. H. Slee- man's pages, and finally, as aforesaid, Former Durbars. What pleasanter companion could there be for the long and languid hours of an Indian railway journey P But Mr. Field's compilation is also worth the attention of arm-chair travellers. It succeeds, where many more ambitious books have failed, in giving a very vivid sense of the extraordinary multifarious- ness and variety of Indian life, and even its omissions help to emphasize the fact that net even the most widely chosen anthology can do justice to all India.