OXFORD FROM WITHIN.
Oxford from Within. By Hugh de Selincourt. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d. net.)—We cannot say that this book helps us much to understand the inwardness of Oxford life, past and present. There is an " Intruder " who plays the part of advocatus diaboli, and his suggestions and accusations are answered more or less satisfactorily. We are told something about educational matters, compulsory Greek and other things ; something about games—is Rugby football really a better game to watch than Association? many think not—about dramatic performances, and other subjects. It is all readable enough, but scarcely illuminating. Then there is an historical element ; perhaps this is more to the point; history is never out of place. (But were undergraduates flogged "all through the Stuart period" sixty years after the mythical chastising of John Milton ?) The pictures are by MaYoshio Markin, who gives us in "A Note by the Artist" his impressions of the place. Twelve are in colour, the colour sometimes being somewhat startling—we know the 'Purl pretty well, but never saw it as it appears in the frontispiece—others, as "Little Venice," are more attractive, at least to most eyes. Eight are in sepia, two ("All Souls " and " In Front of the Sheldonian") having a very photographic look. As a whole they are distinctly interesting.
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