When, some time ago, a collection of my mother’sreminiscences was given to the public, we receiveda large number of suggestions that a second similarvolume would be certain of the same cordialwelcome as was extended to the first. The followingpages, containing memories and observationsextending over a long period of years, are theresult of these kindly exhortations.

The task of arrangement and of selection frommy mother’s scrap-books and note-books has beencarried out by me under her supervision; and Ihave also included as many recollections, hithertounpublished, as her very excellent memory wasable to furnish. Of the many anecdotes which aregiven, the majority, it is hoped, are here told forthe first time in print; most of them, indeed,recount personal experiences of her own or of someof the well-known people with whom during a longlife it has been her privilege to meet. In preparingthe volume valuable assistance, which it is ourdesire here gratefully to acknowledge, has beenrendered by many well-wishers, some of them oldfriends, some of them unknown to us except bytheir encouraging and helpful letters.

It may be added that my only aim in the pageswhich follow has been to arrange a mass of material—someof it no doubt old, but a great deal, I hope,new—in such a form as may interest and amusethe reader and thus serve to occupy a few leisurehours. If failure be the result, the blame must belaid entirely at my door; while should the bookin any measure achieve its aim, the whole creditbelongs properly to my mother.

RALPH NEVILL.