BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 158, 23 March 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

MORE PEPYS UP TO DATE. . The success of that clever aud most amusing book, "A Diary of the Great' Warr,' 1 by "Samuel Pepys, Junior," was so great that it is no wonder wo should have a second instalment of this satirioal chronicle of English everyday life in wartime. "A Second Diary of the Great 'Warr" (John Lane, per Whitcombe and Tombs) lias now appeared, and presents just as rich a feast of good humour and dry satire, and, itt places, sterling common sense, as did its predecessor. A fortnight ago, several extracts from the "Second Diary" were given in these columns. To-day, I make others, selectiug passages which strike me as specially diverting. The author, who stiil preserves his anonymity, is strikingly successful in reproducing the quaint style of his Stuartian exemplar. How great i 3 his success may b© seen at once on taking a volume of the original Diary and comparing a page or so of the "new Pepys" with the justly famous record of the garrulous gossiper who chronicled London life in the days of tlm Merry Monarch. The way in which fact jostles fiction, the contract between the Diarist's comments upon iho war news from the various fronts aud the various political aud other rumours of the town and the most trivial details of iiis domestic or club life, the descriptions of his business worries and his amusements, his tiffs with Mrs. Pepys and his not infrequent philanderings with various other ladies, all is beyond praise.

Naturally, the Zeppelin raids crop up prominently in the Diary. Mr. Pepys and his wife—to say nothing of the servants—are desperately scared, but the Diarist does not fail to comment upon the gross exaggerations for which rumour is responsible on these occasions. As thus (February 1,1916):

'Tis given out . by the Army Office that 6 or 7 iayi' ships did ill tho night invade our eastern and midland counties. But Lord! had.they 6aid 60' or 70 'twere easier to believe it, such stories as be told of their doings. Of which I hear from Jobbing, our porter, that bombs bo fallen on Barnet, and a church blown upp; from cook, which sho hears it from the milkmaid, that Norwich is i burnt; from Mr. Macfaddo, at my going to tne club, that two ships did bombnrtl Ldinburgh, killing many hundreds, whence sailing to, Glasgow the port anil shipping bombarded, so many shipyards destroyed with ships on t'heir stocks; from General Phrpleton, that the worst miscliiof is befallen by Birmingham, which is as good as in ruins, with thousands Blain. On all sides, men' speaking very high against tho Ministers, for our having no better defen<!o against these devilish engines; as to which Squillinger bids us note the lesson ■of it, which is, to wit, that "Balfour must goe."

The next day he records the actual results of the raid, which, as may bo imagined, 'are very different from Dame Bumour's estimate thereof.

So far an unbelieving Parliament has cruelly thwarted tho efforts of good Mr. Sidoy to make us put tho clock forward at! hour in summer. In England, however, Mr. Sidey's panacea was put into fore© in 1916. Hence tho' following curious entry in tho diary, under October 1 (Lord's Day):

Last night, being the end of the new summer time by Act of Parliament. Ned greatly busies himself to backward all his house clocks by lhr. Which done, we playing billiards awhile, and after that sitting to our night capps of whisky; so to bed. But Ned' did, it seems, forget his having backwarded tho clocks; bo presently comes down and backwards them a 2nd time. Whereby all tho house this morning lhr. late, and such a fluster in getting to church as never was. Mr. Sloman has a poor, dull church, and the worst musiquc I did ever hear in a church; but a good thing was he makes his sermon of t'he 10 leppers, and did allow, by my reckoning.no more than 1 minute to each lepper.

The "domestic help" problem, upon which, 1 daresay, a good many of my lady readers could discourse very freely, is acute in England'in war time. Tho Diarist frequently refers to the subject, which is even discussed at lus club.

As to which Mr. Soames mentioned his wife; she is in sore need of a cook, and comes to her a very. fairly presentable woman, and bears a good roport of former' service, but ere they get to terms would see her chambor where sho shall sleep.. So Mistress Soames wonders- at this, but being hard put; to it for getting a cook, humbles herself to show her the chamber. Which is a very good one, and so tho jade confesses it; but, says she, "The staircase is very narrow." And, Mistress Soames asking what is the matter of that, "You see, says she, [ have a grand uiano."

And then the Diarist calmly emis his day's record by noting that "the boat news of the war to-day is our army in Macedonia lulls 011 tlie iJulgars and has three ol' their villages. , J3ut of tho army iu France no news ol note these ten days gone, only daily a report of layit and inuaci staying all operations." Like his immortal predecessor, tho Diarist always keeps his oyes well open as ha takes his walks abroad, _ Walking in Vincent Square, he notices "'a curious thing, which was little children liaving wooden soles ■to their boots and to clatter along like French children iu their sabpts, and Manchester folk iu their cloggs." And this', he hears, "is by reason of the great dearth of leather there now is, whereby many merchants and tanners be enriched beyond measure." There aro many quite pathetic references to tho food shortage, albeit tho Diarist aud his club friends do not seem to have fared very badly. _ With that "ingenious curiosity" which characterised his ancestor, the Dia.rist is hot averse from making unpromising gustatory experiments. His friend Biinlay, a city man, tells him "speaking of Swede turnips, how some do mightily commend tlioni to be apt food for men in time of dearth," whereupon our chronicler records that ho "means to try whether 1 cau stomackc them or nop." Lat<sr on, he refers to

a letter writ this day in "The Times" aows-sheet by Mr. Shipley, the Master of Christ's College, wherein he do tell of tho great quantity of starch that is in roots of brako' femes, as they do provo by experiments made in Cambridge; and so do counsel that we diff these roots and to make our food of them. But Lord! it is such a thin® as God knows I had never thought 1 should live to see it, that wo must presently ro root in. fields and woods 'for Kiur meat, like A more entertaining book could not bo desired, and, read between tho lines, it is a contribution of no small value to the social history of presentday England. I vonture to predict that long after the war is over theao Diaries of that ingenious gentleman, "Mr. Samuel Popys, Junior," will bo read and reread with pleasure. The illustrations, or as they are styled or. the title-page, "tho effigies, by John Kefctlowell, newly engraven at largo upon coppor," aro delightfully funny. But the arti3t need not, in certain of tho pictures, have given tho Diw:st such

an air of vacuous stupidity. Pepys the Second ran say and do'some silly things, us indeed did Pepys tho First. But neither the originnl nor tho exaniplar was a stupid man, By all means go forthwith to your booksoller and possess yourself of six shillings' worth of most excellent' entertainment.