Maurice Baring. A Postscript with Some Letters and Verse. By
Laura Lovat. (Hollis and Carter. 10s. 6d.) -
LAURA, LADY LOVAT, in whose house in Scotland Maurice Baring lived from 1940 until his death from paralysis agitans just over two- years ago, has carefully assembled her own, and other people's, memories of Baring, a few of his shorter poems, some of his letters and jokes, and here presents them to the public in a small volume which she modestly and correctly terms A Postscript. Her labour of love and piety should not be judged by too astringent a critical standard, for Lady Lovat is the last person to make any claims for this little memoir, which includes an admirable essay by Mon- signor Ronald Knox on The Effect of the Classics on Maurice Baring's Mind and a letter about him from Princess Marthe Bibesco. Moreover, Lady Lovat expresily. points out that her work has really already been done for her by Maurice Baring himself in his three autobiographical books: while Dame Ethel Smyth's full study, Maurice Baring, published in 1938, must always remain the final authority on its subject. The aim of the present book is simply " to give some impression" of Maurice Baring's last years and of his deathbed, and for a part of this impres- sion Lady Lovat relies upon her own diary records of her conversa- tions with him as he lay awaiting death in her house on an island in the Beauly river. It may be the quotations from Maurice Baring's letters written in the 'nineties, it may simply be the nature of his humour and his jokes, which give the book a faded " period" air. Fifty years ago, indeed, it would have been printed on expensive paper and distributed to none but Maurice Baring's intimates. Those intimate friends, however, will probably be grateful to Lady Lovat for her scrupulous little piece of work.
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