SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[tinder this Leading ire noties such Eccks Ql the week as Tars rot leen 'furred for rettete in other forms.] The Story of the Great Armada. By John Richard Hale. (T. Nelson and Sons. 5s. net.)—In this volume, which he has founded mainly on Sir John Langton's "Armada Papers," published by the Navy Records Society, and the similar collection of Spanish papers contained in Captain Fernandez Duro's " La Armada Invencible," Mr. Hale tells in detailed narrative the story of the Great Armada. He has done his work exceedingly well, and his book has innumer- able points of interest. In particular, one may refer to the chapter on " The Armada and its Chiefs," which con- tains a descriptive analysis of the Spanish fleet, and shows that of all the one hundred and thirty ships composing it only eight were built specially for fighting, and only four of these ever reached the Channel. Too much weight must not, of course, be attached to this fact, for, as Mr. Hale is careful to point out, the difference between the armed merchantman and the man-of-war was far less great in those days than it became even in the succeeding century. The Armada, though considerably inferior to the fleet which Santa Cruz had originally proposed as necessary for obtaining the command of the narrow seas, and by no means "invincible" (which, indeed, the Spaniards themselves never presumed to call it), remained a tremendous armament, and its very strength shows bow great had been the wisdom of Drake's famous dash on Cadiz in June of 1587. Mr. Hale tells his story clearly and with spirit, and his book can be recommended both to the student and the ordinary reader. It contains useful appendices giving the details of the rival armaments in statistical form, and is also copiously illustrated. In this connexion one may perhaps be permitted to regret the use of indifferent coloured reproductions from well-known modern pictures. Mr. Hale's book is strong enough to stand without assistance of this kind.
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