Leaves from the Past. By Clement Young Sturge, M.A. (I.
W. Arrowsmith. 6s. and 7s. 6d.)—Mr. John Allen, a Friend, who followed the occupation of a brewer at Wapping during the latter decades of the eighteenth century and the first seven years of the nineteenth, did what many young men have done, and kept a diary for something less than five months. This has been preserved ; there is nothing, it might be said, in it; nevertheless it is interesting, first of all to kinsfolk (who would be glad to know the doings of an ancestor of more than a century ago), secondly to readers in general. One learns from it, among other things, that Quakers are not always as solemn as they look. Not the least curious thing is the frontispiece, the reproduction of a picture by R. R. Reinagle, an artist of some reputation and R.A. It represents John Allen, his wife, and eight children in the very pleasant-looking grounds of his country house, for brewing was a good business then, as we understand it to be now. This was painted in 1837, the year before John Allen's death,— a more formal bit of work it is impossible to conceive.
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