'Your kind letter followed me here' (to Abbotsford) ‘and indeed I did not want it to remind me your affection would wish to hear of us all, though I was obliged, from fatigue, total want of sleep, etc., to delay till we reached this and settled our future plan of life, to write to you. Papa made out this journey far better than we could have hoped he would, but, dear Mrs Hughes, he is no better, either in mind or body, than he was in town, and only now' [and then? 'aware where he is. . . . To give you an idea of our attendance, to-day from ten to four he was out and in bed, that is to say from his bed to his chair, ten times, with one or other of us either reading or speaking to him and with the misery of seeing he did not understand more than a few words occasionally, though he will not allow us to cease to read or speak to him. I know how you and Dr Hughes love Lockhart, but if you now saw the great comfort he is to us all, the tenderness, the patience with which he nurses poor Papa, you would feel, even as we do, that we had not appreciated him enough, and Papa is so fond of him and strange to say, however violent to Anne and I, is collected, in comparison, to him. . . . We are told a change for better (not I fear in mind) may take place any day, or-what they anticipate-worse, and indeed you and all his friends will pray for his release should he continue in his present melancholy state.'

It was rather more than two months later that the merciful release was vouchsafed; and at the end came a blessed gleam of intelligence to the great troubled mind, which was of much comfort to the family gathered round his death-bed.

Mrs Hughes's journal ends with a page or two of her 'Last Recollections' of Sir Walter; and the record concludes with the true version of an incident not quite correctly given by Captain Basil Hall:

'Sir W.,' Mrs Hughes writes, 'was so much pleased with the Yarmouth bloaters on the day (Oct. 8th) when he breakfasted in Amen Corner, that Mrs Lockhart desired me to procure her half a hundred. As soon as they drove away I went to Mr Bateman, a great salesman in Billingsgate, and I gave the order: he replied that such a number would not suit a private family, for owing to the manner in which these fish are cured they will only keep good a short time. I then desired half the quantity to be sent to Sussex Place' (where Sir Walter was): 'he answered decidedly, but civilly, that it

was not their custom to send so far. I do not know what prompted me, but I said involuntarily, "I am very sorry the order cannot be complied with-it was for Sir Walter Scott." The rough fishmonger started back, and pushing forward to me through piles of fish cried out most loudly-"Sir Walter Scott, did you say, madam! Sir Walter Scott! God bless my soul, he shall have them directly, if I carry them myself. Sir Walter Scott! They shall be with him to-night"-then, pausing, "No, not to-night-for to-morrow morning at 7 o'clock a fresh cargo comes in, and he shall have them for his breakfast. Sir Walter Scott!"-then, with a very grave look and in as soft a tone as his loud voice could be lowered to, he said, "They say he has been ill, and is not well nowhow is he?" Mr Bateman kept his word and Sir Walter was more pleased than I can describe when I related the words I have been writing: he laughed and said, "I do not think my works ever produced an effect so much to my taste before."'

Dr and Mrs Hughes were guests at Abbotsford on two occasions, first in 1824 and again two years later; and of both visits Mrs Hughes gives a very full and lively account in her journal. Scarcely less vividly interesting is her description of the journeys to and fro, which they extended by a little tour in Scotland on each occasion. In those days this was no small enterprise for an elderly clergyman and his lady to undertake. The journal includes a descriptive sketch of the interior of Abbotsford: 'The walls are compleatly covered with every description of ancient weapon; a small armoury between the drawing and dining room is now compleating to contain the overflow of treasure which Sir Walter possesses; he showed us Rob Roy's gun, Claverhouse's pistol, and the Marquis of Montrose's sword; round the great Court which is in front of the house runs a high wall in which are placed pieces of sculpture, some of them relics of Edinburgh Cross: the gateway which leads from another court down to the Tweed, above which the house stands, is the doorway of the ancient Tolbooth of Edinburgh, so celebrated in the "Heart of Midlothian": when Sir Walter obtained a gift of it, on its being taken down to widen the High Street, he had every stone numbered, so that it might be exactly replaced: there are marks of fire on many of the stones.' Elsewhere she writes: Abbotsford is the paradise of dogs-they abound in it and have free quarters in every room: a venerable old Highland Deer

Greyhound of the breed of Ban and Buscar, who in his prime of days could seize and overcome the powerful red stag, three terriers of Dandy Dinmont's breed, avowed "Mustards and Peppers, "with a black long-haired pet of Lady Scott's, are constant inmates, and Sir W. is seldom seen without a fourfooted follower.'

There too Mrs Hughes made acquaintance with many of Sir Walter's cronies and intimates, including that very curious genius the 'Ettrick Shepherd,' of whom she writes: Hogg is a very simple-mannered pleasant person, much less rough in exterior than I had expected, and has an open, good-humoured face which must prepossess everyone in his favour.'

It was soon after the death of Dr Hughes, in 1833, that his widow left Uffington for the neighbouring village of Kingston Lisle.

'Here,' as her grandson writes, she lived till she was nearly eighty. . . . When I revisited the Vale of White Horse eight [now over twenty] years ago, I found friends still living who remembered her in her Kingston Lisle days. Two of these, whose home was three miles from that place, told how she would walk across to their house to early breakfast, accompanied by Mustard and Pepper, and knitting all the way there and all the way back, and start them on their day's work refreshed by her gay talk and amusing stories. . . . During those years at Kingston Lisle she made frequent trips to London, so as not to lose touch of her old friends there; and shortly before 1850 removed to a small house in Reading. . . . Here she died in 1853, carefully and lovingly attended to the last by a faithful old servant who, it was found, had been for years married to a worthy butler of the neighbourhood, on condition that she should retain her maiden name and not leave her mistress so long as she should need her services.'

Art. 14. THE COURSE OF THE WAR.

DURING the past three months the general aspect of the war has undergone a noticeable change. The Germans have been forced to abandon their attack against Verdun, and for the first time have been thrown on the defensive in every theatre of war, while the Allies are pressing them on all fronts. The change is attributable in a great degree to the closer accord which has been established between the Allies. The operations on the various fronts, which formerly appeared to be conducted independently and in a haphazard manner, have been combined in accordance with a systematic plan determined by the Allied Powers in consultation. This unity of action, however, has depended on other conditions besides general agreement. The development of the Allied Armies in numbers and munitions, by making active cooperation possible, has caused the accord between the Allies to become manifest; for, so long as each was liable, in turn, to attack by superior forces, the necessity for husbanding men and munitions precluded any attempt at a general offensive. And so the enemy were free to pursue their design of defeating the Allies in detail by concentrating against each in succession, without endangering their positions on the fronts which, for the time being, they held defensively.

As time went on, the situation became gradually less favourable for the enemy. The growing strength of the Allies, especially in munitions, enabled them, from time to time, to undertake a strictly limited offensive. Thus, in September 1915, the Franco-British armies made a diversion in Champagne and Artois, with the view of assisting the Russians, who were being severely pressed about Dwinsk and Wilna. The enterprise met with enough success to cause the Germans some disquietude; for several divisions were hurriedly transported from the Russian front to stem the advance. Later, at the beginning of this year, the Russians began an offensive in the Bukowina; and in March they made another effort in the lake district, between Wilna and Dwinsk, which, however, had no perceptible effect on the German operations before Verdun. In every case the design of

the Allies was to relieve one of their number by exercising pressure on another front; but their resources were as yet unequal to the sustained effort required to attain decisive or lasting results.

Meanwhile the gallant stand of the French against the enemy's desperate attacks at Verdun was of signal service to the Allied cause. A decisive victory in France was essential to the ultimate success of Germany in the war; and the Germans undoubtedly hoped that the fall of Verdun would so discourage the French people as to make it possible to attain such a victory. It may almost be said that they staked everything on the adventure. Their front in Russia was denuded to swell the numbers of the Crown Prince's army; and, as the battle proceeded, all the troops that could be spared from other sections of the French front were swept into the vortex at Verdun. The French made immense sacrifices; but their stubborn defence discouraged the enemy, wore down his resources, and gained time for the other Allies to complete the training of new armies and the expansion of their munition factories.

Thus, when the situation at Verdun became critical, the Allies found themselves able to undertake a general offensive on all fronts. The Russians opened the proceedings on the front between the Pripet and the Pruth, and, by defeating the Austrian armies, attracted several German divisions from France, and Austrian divisions from the Trentino. The tension in Italy was relieved; but the Germans persisted in their attacks at Verdun with undiminished obstinacy, until the Franco-British armies, on July 1, took the offensive on both banks of the Somme. The Germans then had to decide whether they would abandon the fruit of their costly efforts, which seemed almost within their grasp, or risk defeat by the superior forces which were pressing them on both fronts. They chose the former alternative; and the great army which had been assembled on the heights of the Meuse was broken up, to provide reinforcements for their hard-pressed armies in Picardy and Volhynia. We will now proceed to trace the main outlines of the Allied offensive, beginning with the operations on the Somme.

The front selected for attack comprised the area