SHORTER NOTICE
A Quest of Ladles: The Story of a Warwickshire School. By Phyllis D. Hicks. (8s.) THIS book (obtainable from Messrs. Frank Juckes, 8-9, St. Mary's Row, Birmingham) traces the history of the Byerley family, cousins of the Wedgwoods. It was a vast family-of five sons and eight daughters-and suffered from the casual business methods of the father (who helped to manage and mismanage the Wedgwood busi- ness) so that those daughters who were capable, not being ill or married, for many years kept a school in the Warwick district. The school was attended by the future Mrs. Gaskell, Elizabeth Stevenson, and other girls who were to become fairly distinguished ; and the Bverley sisters themselves had literary leanings and two of them published minor works. Miss Hicks records in detail the family life and connections, though the school itself seems elusive, always in the background but clearly pictured. The book will be most interesting to residents in the Warwick neighbourhood, but has a good deal of information for the social historian.
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