INDIT ING A GOOD MATTER
CAMBRIDGE has known many " honourable women," and among them not a few have been kings' daughters, who in various ways have " exercised authority and have been called benefactresses." In this very pleasant book Mrs. Sorley chooses seven of these to make a group of Noble Dames, every one of whom has a place in history, and whom Cambridge has special rearm to remember. She begins with one who was indeed a daughter of kings, who had so many royal relati.yes that it was hard for her to find a husband not within the pro- hibited degrees, and through whom English princes claimed " rights " in all sorts of countries. But Eleanor of Castile gains a place in Mrs. Sorley's list less for all this than because she heads the line of princely benefactresses by her gift of fifty marks for poor Cambridge scholars. Is it for this that, though a loyal Satiwomin; Mrs, Sorley'speaki kindly; with "a
charity that glows beyond the tomb," even of Eleanor's husband ? I have seen histories, by other Scotswomen of today, which are far less charitable.
Then, naturally, follows Elizabeth de Burgh, whom all know as " princely Clare." She, ton, kept the indigent in mind ; at her foundation there were always to be " ten poor scholars, docile, proper, respectable youths, the poorest that could be found." Next, "sad Chatillon": but we hear nothing of the legend that her husband died on her bridal-morn. As a matter of fact, Aymer de Valence died three years later, and Gray the Professor of History knew this quite well, whatever Gray the poet might choose to pretend. But what would a University be without its traditions ? There are too many iconoclasts today, who forget Browning's dictum that fiction which makes fact alive is fact, too. As we look at Pembroke, we will continue to imagine Chatillon weeping.
Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Wydville, Frances Sidney— to each of these Cambridge owes a debt, and of each Mrs. Sorley gives a full account. But, of course, the first place belongs to the Lady Margaret Tudor, foundress of St. John's and Christ's, and of Divinity professorships both in Oxford and in Cambridge : an exemplar at once of magnificence and of thrift. For did she not paper the beams of the Master's Lodge at Christ's with the proclamations of her grandson's accession ? The light and easy style of this book must not blind its readers to the real research that underlies it ; and though Mrs. Sorley says she is writing neither a history of Cambridge nor a history of England, her volume will be found a useful
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