7 NOVEMBER 1931, Page 38

Between personalities so diverse as John Leslie, the fighting Bishop

of Raphoe, the diplomatist Bulstrode, Charles Macklin the actor, and Lady Smith (1775-1877) who is now chiefly remembered by Ope's portrait of her, there is no common factor save that each lived to be a hundred or more. That they did so is to be attributed to the fact that for most of them and other centenarians their mental powers worked vigorously close up to the end. Dements, they say, are aften cursed with a long life, because they are mental vegetables ; whereas the active-minded live long for exactly the opposite reason. If there is a prescription then for length of days, it is vigour of mind, tranquillity or temperate living, for a life that is worth living depends certainly on the liver. There is something more. As the eye rests on the portraits of the various cente- narians whose lives are sketched in Mr. W. Forbes Gray's Five Score (Murray, 12s.)—on Sir Moses Montefiore, on Admiral Sir Provo Wallis and General Sir George Higgins°11' on the famous physician Sir Henry Pitman and Manuel Garcia who gave back her voice to Jenny Lind, and on Mary Eliza- beth Haldane, mother of the late Lord Haldane—it seems plain that one of the secrets for attaining longevity is good looks. With notable grace and skill Mr... Gray has etched 115 Impressionist delineations of these and some °Mei venerablei.