Escott, Thomas H. S. Society in the country house, *$4. Jacobs.
“In sixteen lengthy chapters Mr. Escott conducts his readers to as many groups of country houses, tracing the rise of each great family, characterizing its most interesting representatives and most famous visitors, drawing upon a store of racy anecdote and curious legend, and fully substantiating his claim that the country house has associations with the spiritual, literary, and social movements of the nation, which are even stronger than those more picturesque and popularly recognized bonds which unite it with the chase, the turf, and the stage.”—Dial.
“We prefer to take the book as a cheerful jumble of interesting side-lights on people and events, the value of which consists in its mirroring the passing phases of thought in the fashion and speech of the time. It is left to the reader to supply his own perspective, and to select the grain from the inevitable chaff of anecdote and genealogy.”
| + − | Acad. 72: 34. Ja. 12, ’07. 720w. |
“We hope that Mr. Escott’s future volumes of pleasant reminiscences may have the advantage of a ‘checker’ who will do the drudgery and the index, and leave the writer free to please us without calling down the cantankerous critic.”
| + − | Ath. 1907, 1: 98. Ja. 26. 960w. |
“Mr. Escott pursues his subject with a leisurely thoroughness that is characteristically British, but his style is crisp and nervous enough to hold the reader’s interest.”
| + | Dial. 43: 254. O. 16, ’07. 410w. |
“It is so cumbersome as to make us long once again for the old days of two and three volumes. A book of gossip that cannot be held in the hands as one leans back in a chair is a publisher’s mistake. Wherever the book is opened some eminent name meets the eye, with an anecdote attached to it; and what more can be said?”