11 JANUARY 1930, page 23

* * * * A Period Of About A Century

and a half covered Portuguese activities in. Abyssinia, and there is no doubt that their intervention during the critical years of the sixteenth century saved Abyssinia from......

Some Books Of The Week

IN spite of Billion, who taught us to look for an author's personality in the mirror of his style, we cannot believe that Herr Philip Scheidemann, the first Social Democrat......

Burckhardt's Well-known Book On The Civilization Of The...

Italy, which appeared in the German original sixty years ago and in Mr. S. G. C. Middlemore's English version in 1892, has been given a new lease of life in a handsome and very......

The Competition

IN his Country Life article of November 30th, SIR W. BEACH Moults suggested that " what we want is really some little rhyme that will be the motto of the tidiers." We,......

Of The Many Books Recently Issued On Edinburgh Miss Flora

Grierson's Haunting Edinburgh (Lane, 20s.) holds a very high —perhaps even the highest—place. While she, dwells long and lovingly on the various romantic memories of Scotland's......

Then I Saw The Congo, By Grace Flandrau (harrap, 12s.

6d.), is not nearly such a bad book as its title and flamboyant dust-cover suggest. It is well written and disarmingly candid : an inquiring mind, and her sense of humour, saved......

Two Distinguished Architects, Mr. Maxwell Ayrton And Mr....

have produced a most valuable and stimulating book on Wrought Iron and Its Decorative Use (Country Life, 42s.). Their historical account contains much new matter—even correcting......

The Amateur Collector Will Like The Cheery Enthusiasm...

Ella Shannon Bowles displays in About Antiques (Lippincott, 15s.), and the expert will learn something from her with regard to early American glass and furniture, especi- ally......

* * * (" More Books Of The Week" And

"General Knowledge Compe. :Won" will be found on page 66.)......