Essays, Descriplitta and Historical. By Lady Prestwich. With Memoir by
her Sister, Louisa E. Milne. (Blackwood and Sons. 10s. 6d.)—This is a very welcome volume. We have in it a well. written memoir, giving the picture of an attractive personality, and some essays which aro well worth preserving. Grace Milne, born in 1832 and left a widow in her twenty-fourth year, became in 1870 the wife of Mr. Prestwich, who was shortly afterwards appointed Professor of Geology at Oxford. This chair he held fa fifteen years. During this time their life was spent between Oxford and one of the loveliest of Kentish villages. In 1896 lb. Prestwich was knighted,—the authorities having taken a more than usually long time in discovering his merits. Six months afterwards he died ; Lady Prestwich survived him by a little more than three years, finishing in that time, in spite of much physical weakness, the "Life and Letters" of her husband. Of the eleven essays which complete this volume, two, "In Mantua during the Austro-Italian War" and "The Banks of the Findhorn," appear for the first time. Of the others, " Evenings with Madame Mehl " is perhaps the most interesting. Madame Mohl was Scotch by birth, and to preside with success over a Parisian salon was no slight achievement for a foreigner. But she was one to take the world by storm, for she was a wonderful combination of eccentricity and charm. When Lady Prestwich last saw her she received her (and her husband) in a dressing-gown and curl-papers (red, blues and green, made out of circulars). Another remarkable woman known to Lady Prestwich was Mary Somerville. Both lived to be nonagenarians, and such a pair it would not be easy to match. (It was Mrs. Somerville who received the curious compliment from Laplace that there were only two women that could melee stand his " Mecanique Celeste," Mrs. Greig and Mrs. Somerville -the two and Somerville that by her second.) It might have been as well to append to the charming paper on " Ewelme and its Almshouses" a note warning -the reader that there is no evidence to connect the Thomas Chaucer buried in Ewelmo Church with the poet Geoffrey. The description on the title- page of this volume is incorrect. The exact style would be Dame Grace Prestwich." or, to follow common usage, " Lady Prestwich," not "Grace, Lady Prestwich." were were one person, Greg. being her name by her first
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