Life and Reminiscences of George J. Elvey, Knight. By Lady
Elvey. (Sampson Low.)—This is the record of a good man's life, and of a musician who won high honours in his profession, and deserved all the reputation he received. For forty-seven years Elvey was organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, for which he received from the Doan and Chapter the paltry sum of £200 year, and his income apart from this honorarium was gained from private pupils, some of whom were of high rank. Lady Elvey's assertion that Sir George was one of the greatest geniuses of the century, may reasonably be questioned ; but to judge from this biography, the statement may be readily accepted that he was
one of the most modest and simple-minded men that ever lived." The Lifo is written with much enthusiasm, but not always with discretion, and there is much in it that is irrelevant. The im- pression, however, left upon the reader's mind is a very pleasant one, and the story, though it might have been more skilfully told, was worth telling.
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