On Active Service with the Northumberland and Durham. Yeomen. By
Karl B. Spurgin. (Walter Scott Publishing Company.)—Mr. Spurgin reached Cape Town on February 27th, 1900; he came under fire for the first time at Rooidam about two months later, and served under Lord Methuen for something more than a year, reach- ing home in June, 1901. (We are glad to have the opportunity of giving circulation to the hearty acknowledgment which Mr. Spurgin pays to Lord Methuen's soldierly qualities.) We cannot follow the story of campaigning which is told here. Let it suffice to say that it is told in plain, unpretending language, which is nevertheless effective in giving the reader a good view of the inci- dents described. Surely there never was a war, not even the American War of Secession, which was so fully described from so many points of view. What a pity that the private soldiers in the Athenian Expedition to Syracuse, in the campaigns of Alexander, in the struggle between Hannibal and Rome, in Caesar's conquest of Gaul, were not equally articulate ! Out of some two hundred and sixty men in the two companies and the Maxim gun detachment, four were killed in action, seven died of disease, nineteen were wounded, and eighteen gained promotion or distinction.
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