Welsh Journals

observation covering most of the chalk country of southern and eastern England, and several other side excursions as well. We frankly envy Mr. Cox his long series of week-end wanderings along the topmost ridges of the Downs, and only hope that his followers may be many. Our criticisms upon the body of the work are chiefly these. The main theory is that the hill- top camps were not tribal strongholds, but were systematically erected with connecting travel ways under the guidance of a central government estab- lished on Salisbury Plain. In favour of this theory there is admittedly no positive evidence at all, while all the weight of the circumstantial evidence is against it. The Ridgeways probably date back to the new Stone Age, arguing from the monuments that lie along their routes and it is difficult to conceive that the advance in material civilization between the new Stone Age and the Iron Age, into which Britain had passed by the time of Caesar, was accompanied by a retrograde movement in political organization. Such an inference is inconsistent with what we know of other peoples and with the theory of evolu- tion. Again the author appears to infer that all the earth- works along the ridgeways were contemporary. This may be true, but a vast amount of exploration will have to be undertaken before it can be proved, because it is utterly unsafe to dogmatize about the age of an earthwork upon any evidence except that of actual spade work." Even so the new Stone Age was an immensely long period, and camps belonging to that age need not be by any means contemporary. We have no space to follow the matter further in detail, but we must say that the author does not appear to have assimilated the essential principles that have now been established in studying the old roads; and sometimes-as in the suggestion that the Ridgeway possibly existed before the Thames had cut the goring gap-he indulges in wild sugges- tions that any competent geologist would have corrected. H.I.F. Child Training Suggestions for Parents and Teachers. By Mrs. Arthur H. D. Acland. London Sidgwick & Jackson. Pp. 179. 2s. 6d. net. In her preface the writer quotes T. H. Green as saying to her. My father did not make my will or my powers, but he made all the difference in the direction of both." Parents and teachers must alike feel grateful to Mrs. Acland for illustrating the truth underlying these words out of the rich experience of her long life. A child is just a bundle of promises, she says, its future inextricably linked with its present. To bring up a child well "is really a matter of making a few good rules and then of sticking to them." The well-intentioned parent feels, on reading this simple formula, much as Columbus's fellow-countrymen must have felt. But far from being a book to discourage the average parent in his or her efforts. Child Training shows great human sympathy with the child trainer as well as with the children to be trained. The author reminds us that "fathers as well as mothers may have very valuable views about the bringing-up or their children because the father is the very person who can view children both lovingly and from the outside." Mrs. Adand does not expect the impossible of the young mother. She claims for her consideration and care and puts in a plea for the training of mothers of all classes. Her grievance is that many parents, and especially mothers, try to do far too much for their children, with the result that, as the children grow, the mother ceases to be a companion to them. For she has ceased to grow. her own interests, her own gifts, her own leisure for self-development having been sacrificed to the more immediate claims of the family. In an interesting chapter on the four elemental needs of babies, food, warmth, cleanliness and rest (to which a fifth, love, is added), it is demonstrated that the foundations of self-control, reasoned obedi- ence and independence can be well and truly laid even within the first year of the child's life. Among the practical suggestions which the writer has to give for the further development of these three primary habits are obedience lessons. "At first the commands must be very simple Touch baby toes.' Following on this comes the charming game of giving things to mother, into my hand, into my lap.' Then comes fetching things, Bring me that cushion.' Then doing things with what is fetched, Sit upon the cushion,' and so on, until at last you can send a child to bring down the third book from the left hand of the middle shelf of the bookcase next the fireplace.' Mrs. Acland handles the problems of difficult ages with reassurance as being so many signs of growing personality, as the baby passes into the young child and the young child into the older child of six or seven. Her views on punishments and rewards deserve attention, and it is interesting to note in passing that she is a firm believer in corporal punishment for the very young, and for them only. The book closes with two chapters on children's books and children's questions, the former not sufficiently exhaustive to please the reviewer, the latter delightfully frank in its sympathy with the much-bequestioned parent.