The New HOW. By Mrs. C. S. Peel. (A. Constable.
3s. 6d.)— Mrs. Peel tells us how we are to arrange, decorate, and furnish a moderate-sized house. A generation ago most people were content, having settled how much they could spend, to leave the matter substantially in the hands of one or more trades- men. They exercised a nominal selection, but that was all. A different temper now rules. We all venture to have a taste, and the result, though sometimes bizarre, is on the whole satisfactory. Any one who can remember the middle-class drawing-rooms of fifty years ago, with the one huge mirror, the bird of paradise under one glass case, and the vase of rice- paper or wax flowers under another, will recognise how great the change has been. Mrs. Peel's counsel goes beyond the ornamental ; she has words of wisdom to say about lighting, heating, ordering of nursery and kitchen, servants' rooms, and all the matters, in fact, which a good house mother should know about and see after.
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