21 JUNE 1902, Page 25

A CATHOLIC GUIDE TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

A Catholic Guide to Westminster Abbey. By Erie William Leslie,. S.J. (Sands and Co. 2s. 6d.)—A "Catholic" guide to Westminster Abbey means, of course, a Roman Catholic guide. None the less, this little book with its delicate drawings of different parts of the Abbey as they were, or may be supposed to have been, before the Reformation, or in the interlude of Mary's reign, will have interest for many who do not belong to the Roman Communion. Association can endear anything to us, and there is something from an historical point of view to be said even for the confusion of tombs and monuments, and the hustling secularities of the Abbey as it is. But there is also much to be said for the pious aspiration after an Abbey given back entirely to the uses for which it was first intended, and redeemed from all desecrating marks of vandalism,—frivolous or fanatical. Father Leslie's little volume is written with great simplicity and in good literary style. It is, in short, a book as well as a guide, and visitors to the Abbey will find in it some legends of saints and incidents of history for which they will look in vain in their Baedeker.