28 SEPTEMBER 1912, Page 27

- The Retrospect. By Ada Cambridge. (Stanley Paul and Co.

ts.)—Apart from the interest to English readers of the im- pressions made- on Mrs. Ada Cambridge by her return to England after an absence of thirty-eight years in Australia, there is an added pleasure in this book in the vivid pictures which the author gives of the England of the 'fifties. To most .of us her retrospects look as if they were reflections of life lived much longer ago than that, and readers whose parents lived in London and have given them detailed accounts of their life at about that date will regard Mrs. Ada Cambridge's corner of the provinees as decidedly behind the times. Nevertheless her accounts are exceedinglk attractive, and the whole book has the graceful sadness which belongs to happy days that have passed away.