DOI issue:
No. 164 (November, 1906)
DOI article:Reviews and notices
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20716#0205
Reviews and Notices
to itself a style emblematic of serener moods.
Perhaps under some first consciousness that his
life was already ebbing, his imagination leapt to a
flame in Salome, for though this was not his final,
and we cannot think his best expression, it is here
by the very intensity of his efforts that he called
most loudly for such fame as the world could
immediately give him.
The Chateaux of Touraine. By M. H. Lonsdale.
With Illustrations in monochrome and colour
by Jules Guerin. (London : Evele:gh Nash.)
2\s. net. — A peculiar fascination attaches to
the more or less ruined but still unique survivals
of military architecture in the valley of the
Loire, for to each is attached its own inter-
esting memories, and the mere mention of the
names of Loches, Plessis les Tours, Amboise,
Blois, and Chambord is enough to cause a thrill
of emotion to those familiar with their associations.
Though their chequered story has often been told,
there appears ever to remain something fresh to be
said of them, some new aspect under which they may
be portrayed. In the collaborators responsible for
the recently published "Chateaux of the Loire"
old Touraine has found yet again able and sym-
pathetic interpreters. M. Guerin's fine water-
colour drawings, with their extreme simplicity,
absence of realism and touch of conventionalism,
are full of delicate suggestion and decorative feel-
ing—excellent examples of what book illustration
should be. Specially charming are the mono-
chromes of the approach to the Chateau of Langeais,
the same castle from its court, and the Chateau of
Amboise from the bridge over the Loire; but the
Luynes, Ayez le Rideau, Chevenez, and Chaumont,
the last treated in a quaintly original manner, re-
calling the work of Boutet de Monville, are scarcely
less delightful, with their tender, harmonious
colouring. Throughout his narrative Mr. Lons-
dale gives constant proof of his power of recog-
nising in the present the modifying influences
of the past. He peoples the old-world thorough-
fares dominated by the frowning fortresses that
have looked down upon them for so many cen-
turies with those who used to hurry to and fro in
them on errands of life and death, introducing
here and there vivid word-pictures of their
everyday aspect now. It is, however, in the
descriptions of the dungeons in which so many
illustrious sufferers languished and died, and in the
accounts of the tragedies enacted within the pre-
cincts of the chateaux—such as the execution of
the Huguenot leaders in the presence of the young
King Charles XII. and his girl-bride, Mary Tudor
—that the story becomes most enthralling, for so
skilfully is the atmosphere reproduced that a
feeling of suspense is engendered, though the
reader knows full well what is coming.
Modern Suburban Houses. A series of examples
erected at Hampstead and elsewhere from designs
by C. H. B. Quennell, architect. (London:
Batsford.) 16s. net.—This work, as Mr. Quennell
explains, "is intended primarily for architects,
builders and others interested in the development
of building estates." The houses illustrated, com-
prising fifteen different types, are mostly semi-
detached residences of moderate dimensions, the
accommodation consisting usually of dining-room,
drawing-room, another smaller reception room or
sitting-hall, and five bedrooms, with here and there
a billiard-room in the basement. Economy of plan
has been the first consideration, all unnecessary
ornamentation being avoided. The work contains
fprty-four plates, most of them collotype reproduc-
tions of photographs. Plans are given of each type
of house illustrated, and in addition to front and
back views there are, in some cases, views of the
interiors. In his brief introductory notes the archi-
tect dwells on the principal points to be kept in
mind in designing houses of the character illustrated.
His designs compare very favourably with the
majority of suburban houses erected nowadays,
and merit the attention of builders who undertake
the erection of this class of house.
Stratford-on-Avon. By Sidney Lee. (London
Seeley & Co.) 6s. net.—Carefully revised and
brought up to date by the author, this new edition
of a work that has long been recognised as an
authority on its subject will be gladly welcomed by
the generation that has grown up since its first
publication twenty years ago. As everyone knows,
the author is a thorough expert in Shakesperian
lore, and he has a most intimate acquaintance with
Stratford-on-Avon and its neighbourhood. He
has, moreover, not been content, as have so many
of his predecessors and contemporaries, with des-
cribing the town merely as connected with the
memory of its greatest son; he has told its story as
a whole, tracing it back to Roman times, describing
its mediaeval markets and fairs, the foundation
of its first church, the formation of its earliest
guild, and the initial inauguration of its self-govern-
ment, thus gradually accounting for the environ-
ment into which the future poet was born. He
then notes every still surviving relic associated with
Shakespeare's memory, and concludes by pointing
out how useless it is, after all, to try to estimate
exactly how much the dramatist owed to Stratford.
185
to itself a style emblematic of serener moods.
Perhaps under some first consciousness that his
life was already ebbing, his imagination leapt to a
flame in Salome, for though this was not his final,
and we cannot think his best expression, it is here
by the very intensity of his efforts that he called
most loudly for such fame as the world could
immediately give him.
The Chateaux of Touraine. By M. H. Lonsdale.
With Illustrations in monochrome and colour
by Jules Guerin. (London : Evele:gh Nash.)
2\s. net. — A peculiar fascination attaches to
the more or less ruined but still unique survivals
of military architecture in the valley of the
Loire, for to each is attached its own inter-
esting memories, and the mere mention of the
names of Loches, Plessis les Tours, Amboise,
Blois, and Chambord is enough to cause a thrill
of emotion to those familiar with their associations.
Though their chequered story has often been told,
there appears ever to remain something fresh to be
said of them, some new aspect under which they may
be portrayed. In the collaborators responsible for
the recently published "Chateaux of the Loire"
old Touraine has found yet again able and sym-
pathetic interpreters. M. Guerin's fine water-
colour drawings, with their extreme simplicity,
absence of realism and touch of conventionalism,
are full of delicate suggestion and decorative feel-
ing—excellent examples of what book illustration
should be. Specially charming are the mono-
chromes of the approach to the Chateau of Langeais,
the same castle from its court, and the Chateau of
Amboise from the bridge over the Loire; but the
Luynes, Ayez le Rideau, Chevenez, and Chaumont,
the last treated in a quaintly original manner, re-
calling the work of Boutet de Monville, are scarcely
less delightful, with their tender, harmonious
colouring. Throughout his narrative Mr. Lons-
dale gives constant proof of his power of recog-
nising in the present the modifying influences
of the past. He peoples the old-world thorough-
fares dominated by the frowning fortresses that
have looked down upon them for so many cen-
turies with those who used to hurry to and fro in
them on errands of life and death, introducing
here and there vivid word-pictures of their
everyday aspect now. It is, however, in the
descriptions of the dungeons in which so many
illustrious sufferers languished and died, and in the
accounts of the tragedies enacted within the pre-
cincts of the chateaux—such as the execution of
the Huguenot leaders in the presence of the young
King Charles XII. and his girl-bride, Mary Tudor
—that the story becomes most enthralling, for so
skilfully is the atmosphere reproduced that a
feeling of suspense is engendered, though the
reader knows full well what is coming.
Modern Suburban Houses. A series of examples
erected at Hampstead and elsewhere from designs
by C. H. B. Quennell, architect. (London:
Batsford.) 16s. net.—This work, as Mr. Quennell
explains, "is intended primarily for architects,
builders and others interested in the development
of building estates." The houses illustrated, com-
prising fifteen different types, are mostly semi-
detached residences of moderate dimensions, the
accommodation consisting usually of dining-room,
drawing-room, another smaller reception room or
sitting-hall, and five bedrooms, with here and there
a billiard-room in the basement. Economy of plan
has been the first consideration, all unnecessary
ornamentation being avoided. The work contains
fprty-four plates, most of them collotype reproduc-
tions of photographs. Plans are given of each type
of house illustrated, and in addition to front and
back views there are, in some cases, views of the
interiors. In his brief introductory notes the archi-
tect dwells on the principal points to be kept in
mind in designing houses of the character illustrated.
His designs compare very favourably with the
majority of suburban houses erected nowadays,
and merit the attention of builders who undertake
the erection of this class of house.
Stratford-on-Avon. By Sidney Lee. (London
Seeley & Co.) 6s. net.—Carefully revised and
brought up to date by the author, this new edition
of a work that has long been recognised as an
authority on its subject will be gladly welcomed by
the generation that has grown up since its first
publication twenty years ago. As everyone knows,
the author is a thorough expert in Shakesperian
lore, and he has a most intimate acquaintance with
Stratford-on-Avon and its neighbourhood. He
has, moreover, not been content, as have so many
of his predecessors and contemporaries, with des-
cribing the town merely as connected with the
memory of its greatest son; he has told its story as
a whole, tracing it back to Roman times, describing
its mediaeval markets and fairs, the foundation
of its first church, the formation of its earliest
guild, and the initial inauguration of its self-govern-
ment, thus gradually accounting for the environ-
ment into which the future poet was born. He
then notes every still surviving relic associated with
Shakespeare's memory, and concludes by pointing
out how useless it is, after all, to try to estimate
exactly how much the dramatist owed to Stratford.
185