SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] The Handy Man Afloat and Ashore. By the Rev. G. Goodenough, R.N. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)—Mr. Goodenough is a Navy chaplain, and has served, as Crockford tells us, on ships in the Channel and Mediterranean Squadrons, on ships in harbour, and at dockyards. He has the experience, therefore, and, as a few pages of his book sufficiently show, he has the sympathy, which qualify for writing on this subject. He begins with what he calls " The Navy's Cradle," Greenwich Hospital School, and he follows the sailor from this first experience through his career. Of course, the whole Navy is not recruited from Greenwich, but some of its best stuff comes that way, and it is pleasant to be told that there is never any lack. "Whatever may be the attrac- tion, there are always more boys ready to join the Service than can be taken on at any time." We cannot pretend to go with Mr. Goodenough through all the details which he gives ; far less can we pretend to criticise him. Probably a chaplain keeping his eyes, ears, and heart open knows more about the "handy man" than any one else. He is free when others are bound by etiquette. Besides the chapters descriptive of the sailor's work, we have a chapter on sea songs, another on homes, "rests," and institutes. (He speaks, we see, with high praise of Miss Agnes Weston.) We heartily commend the volume to our readers. Before parting with it we must borrow from it a quotation :—" A genuine man-o'-war's man was almost as good a soldier as a soldier himself in some things, and a far better campaigner. He was certainly a better hand at knocking about big guns than any artillery man in the United Kingdom?' That was written nearly fifty years ago, in the Crimean time, and, as Mr. Goodenough says, the "handy man" of to-day "is not one whit behind the old Crimean hero,"
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