The author evidences her broad interest in English customs and practices which she presents in most readable form. The world of childhood is surveyed and the youthful comings and goings, at school and church, in the home and on the playground, in health and in illness are detailed. There is interesting evidence of the problems of survival and the threats to happiness in an age of smallpox and typhus, charity schools and stern masters, governesses and seminaries. The discussion of children's toys, in their elaborateness, number and variety, of the use of the horn book and the stories of magic and wonder, indicate the important part that recreation played in the lives of children. The volume is presented with much charm and is beautifully illustrated. It pictures the beginnings of a new concept of childhood and the basic reforms which carried over into the 19th century, but found their greatest fruition in the prophylactic concepts of the 20th century.