3 OCTOBER 1908, Page 11

OLD TIMES AND FRIENDS.

Old Times and Friends. By the Rev. E. L. H. Tew. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 5s. net.)—Mr. Tew gives us in this volume a number of recollections which make pleasant reading. First comes his grandfather, who, after fighting at Trafalgar and spending some years in the merchant service, took Orders. A smart answer is recorded of him. " Dick, you stupid block !" said his father to him. "No, Sir," he replied ; "only a chip." After- wards come recollections of clerical matters as they used to be managed in the first half of the century ; then of St. Paul's School in London, with its masters, Kynaston, Kempthorne, and Hudson, names which some of our readers will recollect. Then follows Oxford, represented, and not favourably in Mr. Tew's opinion, by Magdalen Hall. He does justice, wo see, to Richard Michell; but the defects of the place were beyond any one man's curing. Then we have some quite just reflections on the deplorably inefficient preparation for ordination that the University provided. Twelve lectures from the Regius Professor, which sometimes consisted of little more than a catalogue raisonnd of books, were supposed to fit a man for the most responsible of professions. Naturally, the greater part of the volume is occupied with recollections of parishes and parsons, illustrated with stories which remind one of Martial's classification. Here is a good description of North and South Country ways :—" If a Yorkshireman thinks you a fool, he comes and tells you so to your face ; down here they go and tell somebody else."