The memory of Charlotte, Viscountess Barrington, is safely preserved in
the pleasant Settlement for ex-Service men, which she and her husband founded at Shrivenham ; and it was her first intention that such reminiscences- -as- she might give to the public should be confined to the story of that beneficent Welfare Scheme. Work of this sort, however, cannot be dissociated from the influences which have made it possible ; and many readers will be glad that Lady Barrington, who unfortunately died while her book (Murray, 10s. 6d.) was in the press, had been persuaded to record somewhat fully her gentle impressions of eighty years of change in the English social scene from Victoria to George V. Her retrospect is, no doubt, old-fashioned. She is a champion of simplicities ; and regrets the break-up of the honourable tradition of noblesse oblige. But, if she repines, she never scolds. A shrewd and winning humour pervades her recol- lections ; and, though her style may be stiff as Victorian whalebone, a good story loses nothing in her unaffected way of telling it. Much of her girlhood was spent in Hampton Court Palace ; and the most charming of her pen-pictures are concerned with that historic sanctuary. She was left a widow while still comparatively young, with five children to educate. In their interests she travelled extensively, and has pleasant and revealing things, to relate about leading figures on the Continent and in South Africa. With a keen eye for character, she gives the impression of being generally sound in judgement. Her second marriage, to Lord Barrington, was a boon to her sons, no less than to herself. Like them, he was a loyal Etonian ; and the Eton tradition cemented their sympathies. With her husband's co-operation she realised her dream of bettering village life, and providing a brighter and a fuller social system on the countryside. She devoted the evening of her days to the service of her fellow country-people ; ancLieft a fine example of the British Lady
Bountiful at her best. -
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