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THE STUART COURT IN ExiLE AND THE JACOBITES. Edited by Eveline Cruickshanks and Edward Corp. Hambledon Press, London, 1995. Pp. xxiv, 167. £ 25.00. Conference proceedings are generally fun to read and hell to review. This set has an advantage over the run in that it is concerned with a subject which is at once well-defined, topical, and relatively neglected: the relationship between the Stuart court at St Germain and its supporters during the first phase of its exile, from 1689 to 1715. It cannot, however, escape the drawback of the genre, that the contributions vary considerably in length and in focus so that if an overall impression is built up, then this is largely by a process of hit and miss. In this case the difficulty is compounded by the fact that the papers are so short, some never managing to rise above mere sketches an introduction to an interesting collection of papers, the outline of the career of a not very successful Jacobite envoy which may be filled out by subsequent research. Several of the pieces display the quality of the authors Paul Hopkins for diligent archival research, John Childs for swashbuckling literary style, Paul Monod for a readiness to ask big questions but most are too cramped to show it to best advantage. What the collection does demonstrate is that Jacobite studies now provide some of the finest examples of a history which truly integrates the history of the whole of the British Isles with that of Europe, and spans the boundaries of academic disciplines. The editors represent British and French universities respectively, and their contributors derive from four different nations. One essay alone (that of Hopkins) draws upon collections in London, Paris, Oxford and Aberystwyth, to illuminate the career of a Scottish politician. The sources drawn upon for the book range from the usual state and family papers and political tracts, to poetry, plays, sonatas, and The Greig-Duncan Folksong Collection. Yeats and Burns make their appearance alongside authors more commonly associated with the Stuart cause; the dispossessed royal family is currently inspiring some of the most truly modern kinds of history. The meat of the book lies in its treatment of the 1690s, and some of the best of it is provided while the pages are still in Roman numerals, by the editors' survey of the Stuart base at St Germain. They turn Churchill's 'phantom court' into a flourishing centre of the arts which had a direct impact upon French music in particular. It also, arguably, played a vital role in the transmission of Freemasonry to the Continent. Contrary to received notions, honours were given sparingly there and the little information which required secrecy was handled with discretion. Only in