Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/308

 300 8HOET NOTICES April Carteggio del Segretarii. From the letters of the ducal secretaries we gain a picture of court life in which Tuscan light-heartedness and informality competed with Spanish etiquette, and magnificence in public ceremonies went side by side with ' extreme domestic discomfort '. This is perhaps the most interesting chapter of a scholarly and attractive biography. C. M. A. Mr. F. A. Mumby, in The Fall of Mary Stuart. A Narrative in Contem- porary Letters (London : Constable, 1921), again shows his happy knack 'in the not too easy science of historical selections. The series of letters he gives us begins with the marriage of Mary queen of Scots to Darnley, and ends with the time when she had fled to England to find herself the unwilling prisoner of her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Thus the period covers the strife with Darnley which ended in the Biccio murder, the favour of Bothwell, Darnley 's murder, the Both well marriage, Lochleven, Langside, and flight. Not only does Mary Stuart shine as a letter-writer and ' a notable woman ' in this collection, but also Queen Elizabeth, whether she wrote with her own hand or (when the Scots queen's fortune waned) by the hand of another. One of the most characteristic letters also is that of Catherine de Medicis, queen of France, to the English queen in favour of her prisoner. One is glad to find the letter (of 1566-8) which shows that Queen Mary's knowledge of her English adherents had never been allowed to be forgotten, and the contemporary Spanish references to Elizabeth's skill in temporizing about the English succession. Though wonderfully impartial, Mr. Mumby is yet against Mary in her relations with Kiccio and Bothwell. It is difficult if this is not being too captious to see how he thinks the ' Casket Letters ', as we know them, could ' prove ' anything. The originals whatever they were are no more, and all we have are ex parte garbled translations or copies, so that any inference drawn from them must be a disputable surmise. We notice that he quotes the Venetian ambassador as calling the queen of Scots' half-sister the countess of Argyll, ' the Bastard of Holland ', and wonder how this title was acquired. We notice also that he identifies her mother as Elizabeth Carmichael instead of Elizabeth Bethuue of Creich. A. F. S. Dr. R. H. Murray has expanded a sermon preached in Trinity College, Dublin, in memory of its distinguished alumni and published it under the title Dublin University and the New World (London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1921). The little volume gives an account of four New England worthies who were at some time connected with Trinity College. Of these two, John Sherrard and Samuel Mather, were obscure and respectable divines ; the other two, Increase Mather and John Win- throp the younger, belong to general history. In passing one may note that Dr. Murray takes a more favourable view of Increase Mather's activities, especially in the question of the restoration of the charter, than is taken by the most recent American historians. An appendix gives brief notices of some Trinity emigrants and immigrants. H. E. E. The life of Henry Duke of Grafton, 1663-90, by Sir Almeric Fitzroy (London : Christophers, s.a.), contains many really excellent portraits,