CAMBRIDGE MEMORIES
By Thomas Thornely
Good wine is its own commendation, and Mr. Thomas Thornely's Cambridge Memories (Hamish Hamilton, Ss.) is of so admirable a vintage that Mr. J. B. Priestley's foreword is, though serviceable, superfluous. There is no need to be a Trinity Hall man, or indeed a Cambridge man, to appreciate Mr. Thornely's altogether delightful, and too brief, recollec- tions. Every page has its anecdote and every anecdote its interest. Henry Fawcett, Sir Henry Maine, Labotichere, Acton, sludges; Bishops, Heads of 'Houses, all make their contribution, and none of them could be spared. The writer's capacity for critical geniality (with geniality predominating) is well exemplified by his report to the Pitt Press on a book he had read for them—" I was obliged to advise against it, but I tempered my criticism by saying that there was enough logic in the book to make it probable that if we accepted the author's absurd premises we should be led on to his ridiculous conclusions." One error may be noted ; Mr; Thornely does: not seem to have realised that United States Senators have for, more than twenty years been elected by direct popular vote, not by the State Legislatures. To review the book adequately is impracticable, for,the only way-to counter the temptation to quote to excess is to cease to quote at alL The book generally is lace the curaeoa which the Yorkshireman very justly desired to tak in a moog." Unfortunately Mr. Thomely has stuck.toitliquenr-glass.
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