A CORRECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The following paragraph appears in the Spectator of November 8th:—.
"Haunts of Ancient Peace. By Alfred Austin. (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—A considerable portion of this book having been contributed to the columns of the Spectator some eight years since, we are pre- cluded from noticing it in the way that we should have liked. But the author, we may state, has added a number of lyrics, and has infused a dramatic element into the text, which is illustrated by some charming drawings by Mr. E. H. New."
As the reason you give for not reviewing Mr. Austin's book is likely to produce an erroneous impression that its contents are not new, we should like to point out that the entire amount of " Haunts of Ancient Peace " which has appeared in the Spectator or elsewhere is less than four pages. It does not seem to us that such a portion of a volume of a hundred and sixty pages can with any approach to accuracy be described as "considerable."—We are, Sir, &c.,
MACMILLAN AND CO.. LTD.
[Mr. Austin's articles entitled " Haunts of Ancient Peace," consisting of some ten thousand words, were printed in the Spectator in 1894. On receiving his book (of some thirty-five thousand words) bearing the same title, very naturally we assumed it to embody those contributions, and therefore made only a casual comparison of the two texts. Casual though it was, however, chance seems to have guided our eyes to a passage common to both. Hence the mistake.—ED. Spectator.]
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