History in Rhymes
A Box of Dates for Children. By Geoffrey Moss. (Cobden Sanderson. 5s.)
Mon English writers seem to have the itch at one time or another to .write the history of the world. Major Moss is more modest and has limited himself to his own country. The origin of his book was the heed of a simple and sym- pathetic textbook from which to teach his own son ; now, polished and embellished, he offers it to other parents. It consists of two elements : a straightforward, and unexcep- tionable precis, with a few mildly ironical reflections, and a series of rhymes designed to render the salient facts more easily memorable. It is in this, the -more important part of the book, that Major Moss has allowed himself to be led away from the simplicity of his original scheme. Some of the rhymes are in the best tradition. I do not know whether this method is still in use at modern schools. I daresay not, but most of us who enjoyed an old-fashioned education can still remember our gender rhymes long after Latin has become a 'very dead language to us, and an essential part of their permanent quality is the element of silliness that runs through them. Major Moss is altogether too clever :
" Hengist and Horsa, covered in brine, Landed at Thanet, Four Forty-nine."
is excellent. So is the verse beginning
" Marching down a Wessex-lane, You met a pirate, called a Dane."
and I am delighted to see that the rhyme for " Ten-sixty-six " is still " Fix " as it was. in "_Doggerel Dates " on which I was brought up.
But what could be less useful too child than the epigram :
" Five hundred years ; oh, what a change since Fourteen-Thirty-One When Englishmen burnt Joan of Arc beeausashe made them run.
• For, were she to return today and drive them out of Cannes, The French themselves would be the first to take and burn poor Jeanne "
or the admirable but inappropriate lines on King George V ? Children quickly detect and resent an esoteric meaning, but I hope that they piously repeat the couplet on George IV :
" Last royal patron of the Arts
He was, alas, too fond of tarts. "
The decorations by Mr, Eric Simon are -of variable value. Most are charming ; but the drawing of Eleanor of Acquitaine
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