This book of reminiscences begins delightfully, when the author was a girl of thirteen, with pebbles tossed against a bedroom window and an invitation to walk to the top of Box Hill to see the sun rise. It continues in the same vein of intimate, personal reminiscence to the day of Meredith’s death. There are pleasant glimpses of Shakespeare readings, of picnics, of Meredith’s family life, and of his friendships with young people, with quotations from letters and conversations.
“Her reminiscences have a girlish naïveté which is far from unattractive. Her anecdotes and some of the letters he wrote to her and his whimsical and witty talk help to fill out pleasantly our mental portrait of Meredith.”
+ Ath p1354 D 12 ’19 100w
“She is to be congratulated on her heroic self-restraint. We enjoy here, we are made to feel, the cream of several volumes.” J. J. Daly
+ − Bookm 51:351 My ’20 820w
“Many details of Meredith’s family life are given by Lady Butcher in a wholly informal and fragmentary manner. Her style is frequently cloudy and repetitious, and she often spoils a good story by her clumsy way of telling it.” E. F. E.
+ − Boston Transcript p6 Ja 17 ’20 1250w Cleveland p51 My ’20 80w
“After reading Lady Butcher one needs to draw back a little with half-closed eyes to fit the various fragments together; but in a moment or two it will be seen that they merge quite rightly into the figure of the great man.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p765 D 18 ’19 900w