“It is superfluous to repeat how eminently Mrs. Toynbee’s edition of Walpole overtops all others. To render it supremely enduring it needs but one addition ... a companion volume of annotations. Mrs. Toynbee’s too chary annotation is always pertinent.”
| + + + | Nation. 80: 231. Mr. 23, ‘05. 1810w. (Review of vols. IX-XII.) |
“This edition of Mrs. Paget Toynbee’s is as complete as possible, and otherwise as pleasing and attractive as an edition can be made.”
| + + | N. Y. Times. 10: 388. Je. 17, ‘05. 140w. |
| * | + + | N. Y. Times. 10: 898. D. 16, ‘05. 170w. (Review of v. 13-15.) |
“If these letters, then, have not all the airy volatility and gay sparkle of Walpole’s earlier days, it is still astonishing how he retains his freshness and wit, and these volumes yield to none in their interest.”
| + + | Spec. 94: 748. My. 20, ‘05. 2060w. (Re-review of v. 9-12.) |
Walpole, Spencer Horatio. History of twenty-five years, 1855-1881. 2v. $10. Longmans.
The author, who held official positions in the war and post-office departments from 1858 to 1899, is the only English writer who has had the advantage of being in active service in Downing street while engaged in historical research. “The better acquainted a student is with the other histories of the middle years of the nineteenth century the greater is his indebtedness to Sir Spencer Walpole for the many little asides in which he introduces new material, based not on books, official or non-official, but on his own personal experience, and on information which he acquired first hand during his long and distinguished career in the British civil service.... His history covers Europe, and to a large extent the United States, as well as the United Kingdom and the over-sea possessions of Great Britain. He cites an authority for every statement he makes; and his authorities, appended as foot-notes, show that there are few sources—British, American or European—on which he has not drawn.... The first hundred pages in the second volume are devoted to the War of the rebellion and to the attitude of England to the Federal and Confederate governments.” (Ind.)
“The style is commonplace and diffuse. At times it is wordy in the extreme. The marshaling of all this material has been excellently managed.”