31 DECEMBER 1898, Page 25

The Dutch in the Medway. By Charles Macfarlane. (James Clarke

and Co.)—Mr. S. R. Crockett, in the preface which he has written for the present reprint of Macfarlane's book, rightly says that, though not brilliant, it is entertaining. It deals, in a style unexciting, but not without a certain quiet charm of its own, with a singularly inglorious chapter in our naval annals, which it is to be hoped may never be repeated. But besides this it has, as Mr. Crockett points out, the great merit of forming an admir- able introduction to Pepys's Diary.