From his unequalled experience limned for the most part in
his Berlin Ambassador's Diary Lord D'Abernon has been persuaded to extract the essence of sheer human interest, and thus to furnish the literary gourmet with one of the most tasty dishes of our times. Portraits and Appreciations (Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. Gd.) includes all the lightning character- sketches that lent such distinctive charm to the bigger three- volume work, supplemented by cameos revealing inimitably the features of Lord Cromer, Lord Birkenhead and other political leaders. Nor is Art neglected ; in the persons of John Sargent and Ambrose McEvoy. Evelyn Baring, Earl of Cromer, lives again here for Spectator readers as a pattern of " immense common sense, backed by exceptional strength and resolution." The author is plainly fascinated by the personality of " F. E."—a perfect subject, he thinks, for Franz Hals—not so much " roystering Cavalier " as " exube- rant undergraduate," and withal perhaps the most robust and virile intellect of the epoch." The appreciations of the German and French character, contrasted as they are with otr own, supply the luminous background for Europe's present dismal canvas. A word of praise is due to the publishers for the tasteful print and binding, uniform with the Diary.
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