ACTON, - GLADSTONE AND OTHERS. By Mary Drew. (Nisbet.. 7s.
6d.) Mos. DREW gives us some delightful pictures of the steadfast lights of Victorianism ; Gladstone crowded out of his house by books, offering a prize for the discovery of a corner for a new bookcase ; the youthful and witty Laura Tennant quite unawed and capturing the heart of the shaggy Poet Laureate ; Ruskin's pathetic love affair with the child Rose Latouche. Yet, though we may envy it, we cannot feel intimate, with their unruffled consciousness of spiritual superiority, the comfortable tolerance of these great men. `.` It is my earnest desire," wrote Gladstone, regarding St. Deiniol's Library, " that the hospitality of the Institution should be as far as possible made available for persons beyond the pale of the Anglican Church." It is a descent to Henry Scott Holland on Canons : " What can we do with our old Canons ? You can make harness out of old horses, and you can make Bovril out of old cows. But is.there anything you can make out of old Canons ? "
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