THE FARINGTON DIARY. By Joseph Farington, B.A. Edited by James
Greig,,,yol.:V,---(Hutchinson :: 2,4. net.) THE fifth volume of Farington's delightful diary covers the years 1808 and 1809, with the Peninsula war raging abroad and mach pOlitical unrest at home. The diarist of course
recorded the gossip about Moore's retreat to Corunna, and the t - scandalcius affair of Mrs. Clarke and the Duke of York, and the
duet between Castlereirer and fanaing:- - Thrt-he was muct more keenly interested in Academy polities, in the wealth of bridegrooms and brides and ,eountry magnates, in travel and scenery, and in the respective merits 'of Gaiusbornugh,-Wilson and Turner. As a supplement to the histories and 'memoirs of the period, Faringt,on is henceforth indispensable, especially with the abundant and exact annotations and indexes supplied by his untiring editor. This volume too includes a visit to Lancashire and a particularly agreeable .tour in Dorset and Devon, including Weymouth and Lyme Regis as Miss Austen saw them, and Exmouth, where Farington was introduced to "clouted cream." It is curious to find that some would-be economists in Parliament proposed in 1809 to lease part of Hyde Park for building at four guineas a foot. Creevy, Windham and Sheridan objected to the scheme and, causing it to be' a sort of popular question," induced the Govern- ment to withhold their consent. But Hyde Park evidently had a narrow escape.
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