24 NOVEMBER 1917, Page 20

The Weather Calendar. Arranged by Mrs. Henry Head. (Clarendon Press.

2s. not.)--Mrs. Head has had the patience to collect from old letters and diaries passages referring to the weather for every day in the year. As English people are reputed to take more interest in the weather than in any other topic, we shall not say that Mrs. Head's labour has boon wasted, but many of her quotations are far too vague to be of much help to the meteorologist. Pepys, Swift, Horace Walpole, Dorothy Words- worth, and Mrs. Browning are among her chief authorities. Lady Lyttelton'e entry for November 24th, 1808, is : "Spencer House. The French are at Valladolid, and Blake's army is cut to pieces. Such is this dismal news, to make this day more dismal if possible."