(Hutchinson. Price, 10s. 6d. net.)
We should recommend readers of this book to turn to the last paragraph first. “Whatever virtues Eton may have lacked, she possessed that all-atoning one, ‘the genius to be loved’ ”—for throughout its pages, interesting and amusing though they are, and replete with anecdotes which will revive among the author’s contemporaries (1866—71) many recollections of their boyhood, the criticisms seem somewhat to overweigh that love which we old Etonians feel towards those “courts of grace,” where we spent some of the happiest years of our lives. For instance, some of those who knew Dr. Hornby, and especially former members of his Division, often look back to his teaching, for those who wished to learn, as excellent. A letter from the Dean of Durham lying before the writer of this notice relates how, at Hornby’s death, Reginald Smith (the Publisher) wrote “that Hornby had perhaps been the greatest gentleman since Colonel Newcombe. ” He was not, however, a great administrator or reformer (such as was his successor, Dr. Warre), but certainly he was a hard worker. Ainger, Austen Leigh, Bourchier, F. E. Durnford, Joynes, Whyte, to mention a few of the names, give scope in these pages for many a story. One about Austen Leigh may be quoted. “Did you learn that lesson with a crib was he asked a boy in pupil-room. “No, Sir,” came the answer quite pat. “Run and fetch it,” said the tutor in the same matter-of-fact tone; and in two or three minutes the crib was on his desk.’ But the real character of Mr. Austen Leigh—his kindness, his generosity, the keenness with which he penetrated the outward shows of mankind—was unknown to the author.
Much appreciation—and rightly—is shown of Johnson (Cory) and Luxmoore, with allusions to that “great scholar and good teacher,” E. D. Stone. As would be expected from the latest and one of the best translators of the Aeneid, the style of Mr. Salt’s narration is throughout polished and excellent.
Eton College Chronicle, December 19, 1928, p. 564
Book Reviewed: Memories of Bygone Eton