5 OCTOBER 1912, Page 12

Some Things We have Remembered. By Percy Melville Thornton, LL.M.

(Long-mans and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Thornton's recol- lections are exceedingly interesting, and so are those of his father, Admiral Samuel Thornton. Mr. Thornton's father and grand- father, and indeed all his relations, belonged to "the Clapham sect," who comprised, as every one knows, some of the best and most distinguished people who ever adorned the upper middle class. We do not hear much of their great enthusiasms from their descendants—we hear of their daily life. As one reads his pages one says to oneself, in defiance of all the scoffers of to-day : What good company is to be found among rich, prosperous, religious, and ultra-respectable people! Our author writes with a slight stiffness of diction which somehow suits his subject and never for a moment impairs the interest of his narrative. He takes us with him, so to speak, on a visit to a corner of the world as it was, as it could only be in the England which produced Queen Victoria, and as we suppose it can never be again. Every one who reads the book will feel he has enjoyed a change.