The Personal Reminiscences in India and Europe of Augusta Becher,
edited by H. G. Rawlinson (Constable. 125.), though they refer to the years 1880 to 1888, are in some sense topical. The writer is entirely domestic in her interests. She was in Simla during the worst scenes of the Mutiny, but though she saw none of the horrors, she breathed an atmosphere seething with anxiety, rage, and terror, and she realized how incalculable is both thought and action among the Indian peoples. She does not devote many pages to this terrible period, but she writes with lively simplicity and makes her readers shiver. For the most part she confines herself to the domestic doings of the "family party" which governed India in those days. Bechers, Prinseps, Thackerays, and many other of the ruling names she counted among her relations, and all the chief actors in the Indian drama were personally known to her. Living till 1909 she saw amazing changes in both countries, and the frankness and humour with which she tells of far-off times is singularly modern in quality.
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