A Handful of Memories An Autograph Collection. By Lady Charnwood.
(Bean. 15s.) MANY men and perhaps more women are without the collector's instinct. Why doei anyone want first editions or used stamps, or autographs, they ask. Even these superior people may read Lady Charnwood's book with great pleasure, for it is full of delightful and characteristie letters, amusing, graceful,
humble, vain and tragic. Charlotte Bronte's letter to a doctor when Emily was on her death-bed, or rather her death-chair for " her resolution to contend against illness being very fixed she has never allowed herself to remain in bed for a single day," is almost too painful to be printed. But next to it stands Harriet Martineau's picture of an ideal spinsterhood.
" I am in perfect health ; and as busy as possible, and the pos- sessor of a charming little estate of my own earning, in the most beautiful valley in England. I am surrounded by all the blessings that can be put into the life of a single woman : and I sometimes think that I am the very happiest person of that class in the world. Let us hope, however, that there are a good many others who think the same on their own account."
A long letter from Charles Dickens is interesting, as being over his signature. One can hardly help exclaiming Podsnap 1 as one reads this damnation by faint excuses of a great people.
" I am not quite with you as to the Italians. Your knowledge of the Italian character seems to me surprisingly subtle and penetra- ting ; but I think we owe it to those most unhappy men and their political wretchedness, to ask ourselves mercifully, whether their faults are not essentially the faults of a people long oppressed and priest-ridden, whether their tendency to slink and conspire, is not a tendency that spies in every dress, from the triple crown to a lousy head, have engendered in their ancestors."
Among the foreign letters Tourgueneff's request for an introduction to Charles Dickens—" ce grand ecrivain "—is one of the most pleasing in its grace and lightness of touch.
We must add our appreciation of Lady Chamwood's two chapters which deal with " a, habitation's memories " and tell of her Own house at Lichfield, and its connexion with Dr. Johnson, Thomas Day and the Edgeworths.
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