Evening star., 1933-06-11
zT SHRAH q. BOWERMAN
Early Summer Books Cover q W,ideVar1ety O.
Subjects II Volume of Short Stories,
and Fege Recent Noveb.

years 1549-1562. BY Katharine Fedden
New York: Columbia University Press.
IFE in Normandy manor in the middle of
L the sixteenth century quite different
from that bath room, telephone. radio and
automobile equipped large farm in America
today. The details of that life do not appear
in the pages of histories of the century, which
are concerned with political and military
events, with perhaps a chapter on the social
and domestic life. Literature and art especially
the art of tapestry have done better in por-
trayng the everyday life, both work and recrea-
tions, of the different classes in the Middle
Ages. Mrs. Feeden has had the good luck land
the scholarly enterprise) to come across the
journal Of sixteenth century country gentle
man. and from it she has written q valuable
and delightful account Of how he and his
family and guests and servants spent their
days. In the library OF Coutances she found
transcription Of the manuscript journal, made
by the Able Tollemer in 1872 and longed to
see the original manuscript. Then the World
War interviewed, but very recently her long
delayed quest was resumed, and in the library
Of the Chateau Of Saint-Pierre-Eglise she
finally held in her hands the roll Of time-col-
ored paper covered with the writing Of the Sire
de Gouberville.
The journal is also an account book and a
family register, in which are recorded births.
marriages and deaths, investments, bargains
and contracts, as wen as trivial daily events.
Such family register Is . complete evocation
OF past day. Here are reflected the Joys and
SORROWS of household; here, too, is faithful
record Of the material side Of life" Many such
records are IN existence in various parts Of
France. Their Importance varies as contribu-
tons to social and economic history. Also not
all of them are made the subject Of study by
such q sympathetic and enthusiastic scholar
as Mrs. Fedden Through her selections, para
phrasing and direct quotation, she takes US
with Sire Giles about his estate introduces us
to his household, his friends and neighbors, and
shows US the manor house, from the great
Kitchen which was the center Of family life to
the lofty bed rooms, oak-beamed and stone
hoored each with many beds. "a room Of ones
own Is q very modern idea" The daily routine
the materials and fashions Of dress the kinds
Of food and drink supplied for the table (and
the prices paid for themJ and the processes
of sowing and reaping and caring for 1ocks
and herds are all described, with many specific
details. The social life the hunt, journeys,
the practice Of medicine, and the relation Of
the lord Of the manor and his family TO the
church are indicated by frequent entries IN
the Journal mrs. Feddsn entities her last
chapter Last Days Of q Norman Gentleman"
and In It quotes the win Of Sire Giles, in which
he provided for his four niesitimate daughters,
and finally describes his place Of burial IN the
church Of Mesnileu-Yal The volume Is uhB-
trated with pencil Sketches by the zuthors
artist husband, Romtfly Fedden.
JULIA NEWBERRY's DIARY. with IN In
troduction by Margaret Aver Barnes and
Janet aver Fairhank. New Yofk: W. W.
Norton d Co.
LEW journals written by Chicagoans in 1869
and 1870 survive today. The great fire of
1871. only 38 years after the city's incorpora-
ton, destroyed most public records and per-
sonal writings and heirlooms. This makes the
diary of Julia Newberry recently discovered by
a member of her family, valuable in a double
way-as naive account of a young girls
occupations and feelings and as a glimpse of
early Chicago social life. Walter L. Newberry
Julia's father, was one of the city's most dis
tinguished citizens, and, the writer's of the
Introduction tell u.s. ''the girlhood friends of
whom she writes in the Journals pages are the
parents and grandparents Of the men and
women who today carrying on the best
traditions of the city's Hfe" The fine New
berry Library Of Chicago was founded with part
of the Newberry fortune. Julia was devoted to
her native city, and hoped that she might
always live there, either as an old maid, or
with a husband who would consent to make
Chicago his home and children who would
certainly want to live there and retain the
Newberry house. But the enthusiastic young
girl did not live either to grow old in her
beloved Chicago or to learn to love some other
place better. She died in Rome in 1876 and Is
buried in the English cemetery there.
When Julia Newberry went away to boarding
school in the East in 1869 she was ALREADY
keeping diary. The first entry was made in
the library of her fathers home June 6, 1862
just after return from Europe, and she re-
corded that the Homecoming was very sad and
strange, because her father had died at sea
six months previously. The spelling of the
diary occasionally indicates that plans for 60
ing to a school on the Hudson in the Autumn
were not amiss. Our breakfast of pigeons fried
potatoes g. corn-bread tasted diliciously." "On
Tuesday morn. we went to Stewarts to try on
dresses" The 16-year-old girl, though enjoying
all the amusements at her disposal and having