31 MARCH 1928, Page 18

• The flashy tone of some of Mr. Weigall's chapter-headings

in Flights into Antiquity (Hutchinson, 18s.) does not attract us. " A Little Scandal about Julius Caesar," " The Lady whom Athens did not Receive " (Aspasia, of Course), " The Result of Smacking Queen Boadicea "—such titles, added to two pictures, one depicting Caesar chucking a Roman - lady under the chin, and another entitled " Prince Ptah-Hotpe avoids the ladies," make one inClined to shut up the book and rest content merely with the record of such vulgarities. But Mr. Weigall's captions and his illustrators' pictures do injustice to his matter, which aims at revivifying for the man- in-the-street some scenes and persons of ancient history. Two at least of the chapters, On Pliny's Country-houses and on the beautiful Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who challenged the might of Rome, do indeed reconstruct history for us ; while the scenes from a long-past Egyptian history, being a topic of which the author possesses special knowledge, are Worth more than a passing glance. No doubt there is at the present time being aroused a genuine and a general interest in the past, stimulated very largely by the Tutankhamen discoveries We observe in passing that Mr. Weigall thinks that Julius Caesar powdered his nose.