26 NOVEMBER 1927, Page 19

" Try to know all sorts of people . .

. know as many cliques as you will—or can—but swear the oath of allegiance to none of them." Such, Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins tells us in his Memories and Notes (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.), has been his gospel, and he has practised it well. His breezy 'and un- conventional recollections show his intimacy with many " circles "—clerical, scholastic, athletic, academic, political, legal, literary and theatrical. There are, among many other good things in his book, memories of Marlborough and Oxford, and some fresh anecdotes of Jowett, Gladstone, Sir Henry Irving, and other famous men. But the best chapter of all is the first, giving a delightful glimpse of the writer's childhood in the semi-rural Clapton of the 'seventies, where his father, later the beloved Vicar of St. Bride's in Bridewell Place, was then headmaster of a school fur the sons of poor clergy. In his description of his •early years " Anthony. Hope " reveals a spiritual kinship with Mr. Kenneth Graltante,whose cousin he is.