A College Mystery. By A. P. Baker. (Cambridge: Helier. 3s.
6d. net.)--Some people say that they have seen a ghost in the Fellows' Garden at Christ's College. This ingenious little book purports to be the story of the old Fellow, named Christopher Round, who haunts the place because he occasioned the death of his colleague Collier. The innocent reader may be taken in by Round's confession, fortified by alleged extracts from old newspapers and pictures of the scene of the murder or homi- cide. But it is all fiction. In the early Victorian period, to which the story refers, Christ's had no Fellows named Round and Collier, nor did a Philpotts ever hold the Greek Chair. The introduction of the real Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, into the story as a friend of Collier—who submitted himself for experiment in the hope that his future wife might be saved by a perfected anaesthetic--is unhistorical. Simpson fret heard of sulphuric ether in 1846 and employed chloroform in an operation in 1847. According to the late Dr. Peile, the old building called "Rate' Hall " was pulled down in 1731 and not a century later, " about the time of which Round writes." Is the ghost of the Fellows' Garden fictitious, like the story ?
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