IN FEUDAL TIMES.
In Feudal Times. By E. M. Tappan, Ph.D. (George Harrap and Co. 5s. net.)—This volume is one of that new and admirable school of books for children which are neither quite lesson book nor quite "play-book." Though it cannot be said to be particularly original, and though the reader cannot help occasionally wishing that the author would not lay down rules as to what is or is not " artistic " in mediaeval art, it is on the whole a pleasant volume. The chapter entitled "How to Capture a Castle " is thoroughly sound, and that upon " Hermits, Friars, and Missionaries " is, for example, enlivened by a delightful account of the rules which governed the conduct of a female recluse or anchoress. "In her room there was to be an altar and a cheery little fireplace ; and the good bishop gives her express permission to keep a cat that may sit on the hearth and purr." When she entertains her friends she must not sit with them, but she may "open her little window once or twice and make signs to them of the pleasure that their visit is giving her. . . . The bishop warns her that she must never put her bead out."
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