Recollections of Sir George L'Estrange. (Sampson Low and Co.)— Sir
George, who was then a lad of fifteen (the age at which the Black Prince won the battle of Cressy), joined the British army in the Penin- sula in time to see the battle of Vittoria—where he found himself in command of a company of the 81st—the campaign of the Pyrenees, and the battle of Toulouse. It is not to be expected that so inexperienced an observer should tell no anything notable about strategical or military matters, but his "Recollections" are written in a pleasant and good- humoured way, and contain some interesting personal anecdotes. Among ether things, one learns, if indeed one had to learn it, that all men who wear red coats are not of necessity heroes ; witness the anecdote of the colonel who went to the rear, when the seat of his trousers was shot through, the regimental tailor being sent instead of the surgeon to dress his wound. But perhaps the most interesting thing in the book is the escape of a cousin of the writer's from 'Verdun. It is a curious trait of the manners of the period, that this same cousin, having gone to a bal masque' in female dross, attracted the admiration of a naval officer, who was so much enraged on discovering his mistake, that he challenged the young man, and inflicted a severe wound in the side. Let us hope that it was also a trait of the manners of the time, that the Papal authorities refused to permit the words "in sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection" to be inscribed on the tomb of a lady who was buried in the English burial-ground.
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