vegetation. During these forlorn years its condition is revealed in the interesting series of water-colours by S. H. Grimm, in 1784, which are reproduced in the book. Better days dawned for the ancient pile when in 1864 it was acquired by Mr. George Cubitt, afterwards Lord Ashcombe, to whose judicious work of conservation-" everywhere cautious, well executed, and necessary" -his successor pays a fitting tribute.

Lord Curzon's book commences with an introduction in which the author tells how he came to be interested in Bodiamthe most romantic and, notwithstanding its rather austere appearance, the most fairy of English castles." Thereafter follows a chapter entitled "Other Castles and Bodiam," in which the author displays the most astonishing width of knowledge and mastery of an intricate subject. The next chapter deals with the authorities upon which is based the historical section that follows, entitled "Owners of the Castle." Herein an admirably succinct and lucid account is furnished of the various lords of the manor from Old English days down to those of the author. De Bodehams, Dalyngrigges, Lewknors, Tuftons, Powells, Websters, Fullers, Cubitts, from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries, are all passed in review before us. One notes the curious fatality by which the castle was destined to pass from one family to another by failure of the heirs male. "Its story," says Lord Curzon, "is a page, though not a conspicuous one, in the history of England; its owners sometimes figured on a larger stage, and the currents of national life swept up against its walls." None of the ancient lords of Bodiam bulk large in history although many were men of distinction; and indeed we may say, without fear of contradiction, that the last of Bodiam's private owners was incomparably the greatest figure associated with the castle throughout its long and chequered story.

After the historical survey a fourth chapter, entitled "Construction and Destruction," describes the building of the castle, reviewing briefly its architectural features, and disposing of the views, suggested by previous writers, that it never was completed, or that it was dismantled after Richard III got control of it in 1483. Herein also is set forth the evidence for its "slighting in the Civil War. The fifth chapter, " Renovation and Research," opens with a description of the derelict condition of the ruins in the eighteenth century, and after indicating the work previously

accomplished by Lord Ashcombe, proceeds to give a detailed and extremely interesting account of the excavations and repairs carried out under the author's supervision. This chapter is altogether a masterly piece of work, and Lord Curzon has contrived to let his readers share in the fascination with which he must have watched the development of his operations. The work, which involved great engineering difficulties, particularly in regard to the drainage of the moat, "occupied fifteen months of time, during which a staff of from twenty to thirty workmen was continuously employed." The last two chapters contain an exhaustive account respectively of the exterior and interior of the castle. At the end of the volume are appended a genealogical table of the Dalyngrigges and the Lewknors, a full bibliography, a list of engravings, prints, and drawings of the castle, a complete series of measurements, and a note of the various objects recovered in the course of excavation. Few English castles, it is safe to say, have been more thoroughly and more pleasantly discussed, alike on the historical and on the architectural side.

The format of the volume is beyond all praise. It is beautifully printed on excellent paper with ample margins, and is enriched with a full set of measured drawings and a splendid series of photogravure plates. Those who still deny that the work of the camera is artistry should reflect upon the frontispiece and the plates opposite pages 88 and 114. The index is everything that could be desired. One or two minor slips in the text may be noted. The date of the licence to crenellate Amberley Castle, given as 1379 on p. 12, should be 1377. Sir Robert Knollys, mentioned correctly on p. 25, becomes Sir Richard on pages 54 and 61. On p. 54 the name of the French castle supposed to be a prototype of Bodiam is misspelled "Villaudrant." On p. 58 the word "engraved" is printed for the heraldic term engrailed." The illustration opposite p. 140 is of the servants' kitchen, not the hall kitchen. Doubtless these trifling blemishes would have been removed had the proofs passed the author's eye.

It is curious that in his chapter on " Other Castles and Bodiam" Lord Curzon should have had nothing to say about that splendid trio of great castles in south-eastern Sussex which between them form a unique record of practically the whole period of the history of castellated architecture in England. At Pevensey we begin with the massive walls and towers of Roman Anderida, one of

the posts on the Saxon shore, grim and grey, on the most desolate part of the Sussex coast. Within its mighty cincture the Normans reared one of the earliest of the stern and solid square keeps which afterwards became so typical of the conquering race; and later still, in the thirteenth century, a portion of the old Roman enclosure was isolated by a moat and screened by strong curtain walls and towers-no inadequate copy of their grand Roman predecessors. From Pevensey we pass to Bodiam in its lonely valley, where a further chapter of the story is written in a castle that may be regarded as the climax of purely military construction in England. And passing from Bodiam we find, snugly nestling in its sheltered park, Hurstmonceaux, that extraordinary sham castle erected in Flanders brick by Sir Roger Fiennes, about 1446, with all its paraphernalia of defensive apparatus, in which only the moat seems to have owned a serious purpose. No group of ancient castles, so near each other, will better repay the attention of the student.

Lord Curzon's name will always be linked with Bodiam Castle in grateful remembrance by the nation to which he bequeathed this splendid monument of feudal pride. In addition to excavating the castle and placing its ruins in a state of thorough repair, he built a museum to house the numerous relics discovered, and also a series of plans, drawings, and photographs illustrating the past and present condition of the building. Finally, by removing hedges and fences and planting trees he has transformed the surrounding meadowland into a beautiful park, which he included in his gift to the nation, thus securing to the castle a suitable setting for all time.

W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON

1

THE VICTORIAN MONARCHY

1. The Letters of Queen Victoria. Second Series. A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence and Journal between the Years 1862 and 1878. Edited by GEORGE EARLE BUCKLE. Two Volumes. John Murray. 1926.

2. King Edward VII: A Biography. From Birth to Accession. By SIR SIDNEY LEE. Macmillan.

1925.

3. Idealism and Foreign Policy. By A. A. W RAMSAY, M.A., Phil.D. John Murray. 1925.

WRITING of the English Constitution in 1866, Walter

"A

Bagehot argued that the strength and utility of our constitutional monarchy lay in the fact that it contained an easy idea" of government which offered "whole classes unable to comprehend the idea of a constitution an intelligible object of veneration and obedience." Its outstanding characteristic was that it could retain among " the labourers of Somerset " the mysterious reverence once offered to kings of the heroic age, and at the same time command the intellectual respect which a learned historian like Grote felt for democratic institutions. On the face of it, he admitted, its mystic element seemed ridiculous. secret prerogative" was obviously an anomaly for a self-governing people. There is," he wrote, "no authentic, explicit information as to what the Queen can do, any more than of what she does." "That secrecy is, however, essential to the utility of English royalty as it now is. Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it. Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic." A non-mysterious republican government rests too much on human reason and too little on human instinct. function of our monarchy in fact is to act as a disguise." "It enables our real rulers to change, without heedless people knowing it. The masses of Englishmen are not fit for an elective government if they knew how near they were to it they would be surprised, and almost tremble."

66

The

The year after this passage first appeared, Disraeli extended the franchise to a large section of those who were "unfit for elective government." The Acts of 1885 and 1918 have continued the process of widening the franchise, and except that

women under thirty are still classified with criminals, conscientious objectors, and lunatics-the right to vote is now universal. The argument for secrecy in the royal prerogative therefore seems now to fall to the ground. Bagehot himself admits that "some good lawyer ought to write a careful book to say which of these powers are really usable and which are obsolete" for the benefit of those who actually share in the task of government. To-day a political career is open even to a labourer from Somerset. The right to vote carries with it the right to understand, and magic cannot remain mysterious to its manipulators. The more we let in daylight the better.

The reasons for a fuller understanding of the functions of our mysterious monarchy are in fact urgent. The unwritten constitution of England seems even less fixed than Bagehot believed. At the termination of Mr. Macdonald's ministry a controversy about the functions of the monarchy ensued, in which not only professional lawyers and historians, but also the Prime Minister and Mr. Asquith took part. Had the king still the right to refuse a dissolution to a Prime Minister who demanded it? The question remains an open one, though the argument that the use of such a royal discretion would destroy the essentially impartial character of the monarchy seems conclusive against the wisdom of its exercise. More important was the announcement in 1913 by such responsible politicians as Mr. Bonar Law and Lord Halsbury that the royal veto, which had not been used since 1707, might still be used by King George in the case of the Home Rule Bill which the Liberal Government was attempting to force upon a recalcitrant Ulster.

Doubts of this kind are obviously dangerous to our political institutions. Those who aspire to power will not be content to leave the mysteries of authority unexplored, and if they believe that the secrecy of the monarchy, through its intimate connection with aristocratic and military circles, covers beneath a cloak of impartial godhead an actual political power which may be used in the interests of a class, they are likely to subject it to attacks which will be unjust in proportion to the ignorance upon which they are based. The criticisms levelled at the Queen in the period of her retirement after Prince Albert's death found support such suspicions, and though there was sometimes a kernel of truth in the charges made, the secrecy of the monarchy always left it

in