other topics about which Mr. Roberts confesses his ignorance he should have consulted the day-book for 1520 of John Dorne, an Oxford bookseller, which Mr. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, printed with elaborate critical apparatus for the Oxford Historical Society in 1885. The only detailed account of early English bookselling is here rendered accessible, and by overlooking it Mr. Roberts has seriously injured the value of his book. Mr. Roberts is somewhat better informed about bookselling in the time of Shakspeare, but his information is ill digested and there are few signs of intimacy with the literature of the time, which supplies the best material for the history of Elizabethan bookselling. The names of nearly all the publishers of the quarto editions of Shakspeare's plays are presented in a confusing catalogue. No sustained attempt is made to distinguish between the publishers of good and those of evil reputation, or publishers in a large and those in a small way of business. Many Elizabethan publishers from the time of Copland dealt in special lines of literature, but Mr. Roberts does not busy himself with these distinctions. He writes, indeed, very incompetently about the Shakspearean quartos. His singularly brief commentary on the 1602 quarto of 'Hamlet'-"it was perhaps an imperfect report of the first play "-suggests complete ignorance of the puzzling controversy respecting that publication and its immediate successors. The history of the early issues of the tragedy of 'Hamlet' admirably illustrates the good and bad methods of Elizabethan publishing, and deserves a full discussion in a book on the subject. We fear, too, that Mr. Roberts has never read the Pilgrimage to Parnassus,' where much

realistic detail is to be found about the

hack-writers of the Elizabethan Grub Street and their relations with their publishing employers. The scene in which John Danter, the well-known publisher, is brought on the stage in his own name to bargain with his half-starved hacks, should certainly have been consulted by Mr. Roberts. We would gladly exchange the pages spent in cataloguing the names of Shakspeare's publishers for a sketch of the careers of Edward Blount and John Wolfe, about both of whom some interesting facts are known, on the same plan as Mr. Roberts has treated Curll or Dunton. Blount, the publisher and friend of Marlowe, Lyly, and Florio-not to speak of Shakspeare - undoubtedly deserved an elaborate notice. Similarly it is difficult to excuse the omission of all mention of the publisher and friend of John Daniel, Simon Waterson, who undertook Daniel's first publication in 1585, and after business transactions extending over four-and-thirty years figured in the poet's will as the testator's "loving friend." Too little is made of Drayton's quarrel with his publisher, and no hint is given of the offer made by Drummond of Hawthornden to induce his own publisher, Andro Hart, of Edinburgh, to issue the concluding parts of the Polyolbion.' Mr. Roberts has notturned Mr. Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Registers' to the best advantage, but he seems to labour under the misapprehension that that is in itself an adequate authority for the Elizabethan and Jacobean period of his subject. Scholarly investigation into the literary

history of the time is imperatively needed to fill in the scanty outlines supplied by the Stationers' Registers.

Mr. Roberts improves as he approaches the Restoration, but a defective sense of proportion, the outcome of defective knowledge, is often as noticeable there as in the preceding chapters. Kirkman deserves more notice than half to three-quarters of a page allows. Barely any mention is made of publishing at the universities, or, in fact, of publishing enterprises outside London. The great work of the Oxford press is, therefore, pitilessly left out of account in treating of the reign of Charles II. Mr. Roberts has occasion more than once to refer to the actor Betterton. It might have been worth adding that the actor began life as printer and had a publisher's stall in Westminster Hall. The best feature in Mr. Roberts's treatment of the post-Restoration publishers is his sketch of the London "bookselling localities." Little Britain, London Bridge, St. Paul's Churchyard, and Westminster Hall are all satisfactorily described.

a

Mr. Roberts promises a continuation of his work if this volume be well received. We deem him well qualified to write on the successors of Curll and Tonson, but we should advise him, before essaying a second volume, to bring his knowledge of bookselling before the Restoration to a level with his knowledge of bookselling under Queen Anne.

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.

Through Love to Life. By Gillan Vase. 3 vols. (Smith, Elder & Co.)

A Dreamer of Dreams. By the Author of 'Thoth.' (Blackwood & Sons.) A Queen among Queens. By C. McDowall. (Sonnenschein & Co.) Caught at Last! By Dick Donovan. (Chatto & Windus.) Micah Clarke. By A. Conan Doyle. (Longmans & Co.)

Ulli: the Story of a Neglected Girl. Trans

lated from the German of Emma Biller by A. B. Daisy Rost. (Trübner & Co.) The Brown Portmanteau. By Curtis Yorke. (Jarrold & Sons.)

The Peckster Professorship. By J. P. Quincy. (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)

To find "who's who" and what the rest of the world is about in 'Through Love to Life' might furnish a nine days' puzzle for people with more "elegant leisure" than they know what to do with. People who have not had best leave the problem alone, and enjoy-if they can such mysterious strangers as William (footman), Pöbeldowski (prince), the lovely young baroness, and the companion. The author has a wandering and untrammelled fancy; he tells his story in his own way, in the first person, with a good deal of pomp and circumstance, varied by strange plunges into colloquialism; and he calls upon no less a personage than Goethe to support him in his undertaking. There is a good deal of turbid apostrophe of Remorse and Memory, and Chance and Time (in capitals), and some heavy satire on the hollowness of the world and "woman," and kindred topics. Through Love to Life' is a crude, inex

perienced, and foolish three volumes, which might very likely have been better had the author given himself more trouble and not been so easily satisfied with his clumsy performance.

The author of 'Thoth' is not likely to produce anything that has not an effect, a stamp, of its own. The new volume, 'A Dreamer of Dreams,' is a modern romance of an original and artistic type. Dreams are but "kittle cattle," evanescent and difficult of management, and yet there is, perhaps, no other material quite so alluring and fascinating. If what we ask of common fiction is to carry us for a moment out of every-day life, we expect still more of fiction that is distilled from the honey-dew of dreams, "the milk of Paradise" of slumber. The present example is all clever and strange enough, and one feels that it has come very near to being a tremendous feat of fancy. Few story-tellers could have marshalled such an array of far-reaching desires and shadowy influences as this one has, and yet there is no doubt that his results are neither keen enough nor particularly thrilling. A young voluptuary-the dreamer of dreams-takes to believing that a single dream, devised by himself, would be worth all the "tainted pleasures of waking." He thus adventures on the trial, and is soon plunged into all the desperate joys of opium. Soon he finds his will useless; he cannot, as he hoped, control his brain, but has to drift rudderless upon vast reaches of horrible misadventures and visions that seem to him real. In these he makes the acquaintance of a certain "Mr. Smith," who tortures him with vague elusive happiness till, from this "long night of fear," he awakens with a new moral sense to resume his place in real life.

'A Queen among Queens' is a romance of Zenobia and Palmyra. Mr. McDowall takes his facts from Gibbon, and he seems to know the ground well himself, and restores Tadmor from its poor remains with science and military precision. He produces a good impression of the lavish beauty and life in Palmyra, and of the famous siege now so remote in the past. Unusually and unnecessarily fearful of "wearying the reader's patience," he is of a courteous habit and modest in opinion, and in spite of some amateur touches his is a readable and interesting little book. There are two powerful scenes. In one the worshippers of Baal seek to restore their dread rites and to secure victory by immolating "the stranger within their gates" - a Greek maiden affianced to Longinus, the queen's chief councillor. The other passes asses in Rome, whither Zenobia has been carried, and where Longinus and the beautiful Greek girl (still half maddened by grief and terror) dare to beard the terrific Aurelian.

Our French friends and our American cousins have taught us of late to be very fastidious in the matter of detective stories. A generation ago one enjoyed the innumerable short stories which chronicled the successes of a clever detective, but now we must have something longer, something more involved, a mighty plot, to the unravelling of which we must call up all our energies. Caught at Last!' is of the old type, a volume of concise little stories relating the difficulties and triumphs of Dick Donovan, a clever young detective. The villains with

'Micah C'arke, his Statement,' is a book of quite a different character. No one can call it short and concise. The title alone is a week's study, and we will not inflict it on our readers. Micah Clarke is a sort of John Ridd, hailing from Havant. In his youth he took part in the Western rebellion of 1685, and fought for the Duke of Monmouth; this, though foolish, was excusable, but in his old age it occurred to him to relate to his grandchildren his adventures in that same rebellion, and the lengthiness and dreariness of his recital can hardly be surpassed. Doubtless Mr. Doyle writes at an unfortunate moment, when Mr. Besant's spirited work is still fresh in our remembrance; but it does not seem to us that 'Micah Clarke' could at any time have given much pleasure, or, indeed, aught but immense weariness.

The Story of a Neglected Girl' is just the sort of title to attract a youthful and feminine reader of novels. Miss Biller's story may not disappoint such a reader, whose readiness to accept the improbable is not likely to be counterbalanced by too much discrimination in the matter of style. Ulrika de Watteville is the daughter of a ruined nobleman, and at an early age is thrown upon the world without education, and with the most meagre equipment of common Her adventures are comical enough, and she struggles most pluckily with her misfortunes. In two or three years she becomes formidably "educated," learning various languages, ancient and modern, and writing "an essay on the difference between Æschylus and Euripides." But the story need not be absolutely tabooed on that account; and it ends as a "new book for girls, suitable for a present or a prize," ought to end.

sense.

'The Brown Portmanteau' is one of several stories reprinted from the lighter magazines, where they must have been acceptable. They are not badly contrived, and they are told in a rapid and effective fashion without analysis or comment, as stories of incident should be told. There are times when it is pleasantly soothing to the mind to run through such stories of what might happen to anybody any day, especially when the interest is sustained without the aid of horrors. In adding 'The Brown Portmanteau' to their "Sandringham Library" the publishers have kept the promise given in their announcement. The tone of the book is healthy, the printing and binding are good, and the price is decidedly low.

'The Peckster Professorship' is a thoroughly Bostonian piece of work. It is described as an episode in the history of psychical research, and so indeed it is, and every advantage is taken of the opportunities which the subject suggests for dabbling in learning and literature. The book also shows that over-refined style of satire which is characteristic of Bostonian culture in the department of fiction. To

of flowers and shrubs, and to know what wild plants may be found in foreign lands and domes

ticated at home. The animal life of Greece is also On neither of

GUIDE-BOOKS.

As the approach of spring brings again into the minds of many people the longing to visit or revisit the most enchanting of Mediterranean lands, they will have their inclinations most opportunely stimulated by the appearance of an English Baedeker for Greece (Dulau), translated from the German second edition. The book is not only very well translated, but improved in many respects with a special view to English requirements. There are, indeed, many small points on which differences of opinion are possible, and on which we differ from both author and editor. We do not see how the theatre at Athens can have held 30,000 people, when that of Argos, which seems so much larger, is only set down for 20,000; nor do we agree in the traditional pulpit remark that St. Paul's δεσιδαιμονεστέρους, when applied to the Athenians, was meant to be complimentary, seeing that they all knew Menander's Δεισιδαίμων as the type of the superstitious man. So again the tower referred to as the "Tower of the Franks" was far more commonly known as the Venetian Tower, and was found when taken down to contain stones blacked with gunpowder, so that it cannot have been built by the Frankish conquerors in the thirteenth century. It were easy to fill pages with this sort of minute reflection, and thus to give a rather unjust impression of a really careful and learned work, to which any scholar may turn for information. Its knowledge is packed very tight, and so brought within a small compass, and offered at a most reasonable price. The general map is, perhaps, not good enough. It is too full of names, and type is not particularly legible. Yet the detail

the type maps compensate for it by their excellence. But while we are most thankful for what is given us, we cannot but hope that in subsequent editions some further economies may make room for a few important topics, neither minute nor isolated, which are real desiderata in any complete guide to Greece. Prof. Kekulé's essay on Greek art occupies too large a space, and is not of a character suitable for a handbook of travel. He is, of course, a highly competent authority, but he is diffuse and wordy, and, moreover, gives his subjective opinions as if they were ascertained facts. Thus he spends some pages on Winckelmann's opinions, which the traveller may well be spared; and he asserts the pediments at Olympia to be falsely attributed by Pausanias to Peonius and Alcamenes, because they are archaic work of Sicilian type. This view may possibly be true, but it runs counter both to much evidence and much learned opinion. Nor, indeed, can the reader feel confidence in such criticism when he is informed that as regards the far better known sculptures of the temple of Nike at Athens, Overbeck attributes them to the later Attic school, whereas Benndorf holds them to be pre-Phidian. When German professors exhibit such discrepancies in their theories, it is perhaps better for handbooks to confine themselves to moreaccepted views, as is done by M. Haussoullier in truly practical Guide-Joanne to Athens,

which we reviewed lately in these columns any case some more attention should be devoted, as we have premised, to two disparate, but equally interesting topics, upon which this book is all but silent, the fauna and flora of the country, and its mediæval remains. Nowadays,

interesting. exceedingly inte

these is there anything to help the reader in this guide, as perhaps might be expected from German savants, who seldom think of external nature, and yet even at Athens they could have got the assistance of their famous specialist Dr. von Heldreich in his excellent botanical garden. Equally serious is the omission of any proper account of the curious little Byzantine or Frankish churches of Athens; of the Frankish convent of Daphne, with its tombs of the De La Roches; of the frescoes in the convent on Salamis, which represent a distinctive school; and, indeed, of all the remains of this epoch. Here, again, M. Haussoullier is far more satisfactory. Let us add a word concerning the bibliography. As regards lists of books it is fairly complete, though we miss Dr. Waldstein's 'Phidias,' which is strange, as the editor tells us he has had the able assistance of Dr. Sandys in revising the list from the English point of view. But in the body of the book it is evident that the German author had no access to the great English works which should have been mentioned in their proper place. Thus he shows no inkling that to Stuart and Revett is owing our knowledge of the details of the monument of Lysicrates, which they saw and drew before it was defaced and battered beyond recovery. He does not know that in Dodwell there is a remarkably fine coloured drawing of the famous fort at Eleu

there, and that to Cockerell are due the best pictures and details known of the temples of Ægina and Basse. Above all, Mr. Penrose receives but scant justice for his masterly 'Principles of Athenian Architecture.' With that isolation which unfortunately still marks the learning of the Germans, this guide gives no credit to the noble Society of Dilettanti, for whom most of the works just named were published. So, also, there is not a word concerning the English or the American school at Athens, to either of which an educated tourist might be directed for much valuable information. It is, of course, easy to find desiderata, but we have purposely abstained from all petty matters and confined ourselves to the larger subjects upon which we hoped for information. If further economy of space must be effected to find room for these things, we suggest the omission of the preliminary account of the approach to Greece via Italy. The single sentences given to Ancona, Bari, &c., are both inept and misleading: "Ancona contains a Roman triumphal arch "-" At Bari is an old castle"! The systematic dislike of ecclesiastical antiquities revenges itself on Bari and Ancona as well as Athens. Surely if any directions or details about the voyage into Greece were to be given, the really important route in a new edition, because it is new and little understood, is that from Pesth by Belgrade to Salonica, and thence to Volo, with the excursion to Mount Athos on the way. Even the far less accurate 'Murray' has a good account of all this, and yet here there is not a word about it. This is, indeed, a grave omission. But we must not multiply complaints. The constant progress of discovery makes every new edition of this excellent book of independent value. Thus, on Eleusis, on the Acropolis of Athens, on Epidauros, and elsewhere, the second German edition taught us new things of importance, and

even this translation has some additions. The

opening of railways and building of new roads produce changes in the routes and economies successive issue as a new step in our increasing of time and money. We hail, therefore, each knowledge of a country and a people second to none in Europe for charm, for interest, and for growing importance.

WE congratulate Mr. Murray on the improvement effected in his Handbook for Holland and

Belgium. Following the example of the admirable Joanne series of guide-books, he has removed the matter which is liable to constant change-information about hotels, shops, theatres, &c. to an appendix, which can be recast every season. The body of the book has been revised, and is, as a whole, excellent. We may, perhaps, think it would have been well to abandon the fine old British notion that the Duke would have gained a victory at Waterloo had the Prussians not appeared; and we should have said more about the district of the Ardennes, seeing how many English tourists now resort there; but these are minor matters. So far as we have examined it the book seems to be excellent. The maps have been increased in number; we should like a separate map of the Meuse valley.

RECENT VERSE.

Death's Disguises, and other Sonnets. By Frank T. Marzials. (Scott.)

The Lost Life, and other Poems. By E. M. Caillard. (Eyre & Spottiswoode.)

The Witch in the Glass, &c. By Sarah M. B. Piatt. (Stock.)

With Double Pipe. By Owen Seaman. (Oxford, B. H. Blackwell; Cambridge, Elijah Johnson; London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.)

A PLAINTIVE pessimism, musically expressed, is the leading characteristic of much of our latter day poetry, and Mr. Marzials is a fair example of these golden-mouthed but lugubrious singers. His little book, daintily dressed in parchment and printed with excellent type on unexceptionable paper, is redolent of cultured melancholy. He is the bard of the Grosvenor Gallery in the elysian days before that temple of Art was outraged by oysters and defiled by bottled stout. Hear him at a private view, enjoying yet half regretting its splendours, and forgive the quaint tmesis of his opening line :

How bright the chit and chat! Light laughter flies
A-ripple over all the deeps of art, and all
Glints gaily; it is culture's festival:

The pictures smile on us in sunniest wise.

But hush! see here-beneath those pure pale skies,
There in that frame, what wolfish thing, the thrall
Of ignorance and want, lurks bestial,

With the hate hunger in its haggard eyes!
"O fit and few." it seems to shriek, "I curse
Your selfish soul-joys! Why from age to age
To glut your fulness should the gods amerce
Us, as dumb swine, of manhood's heritage,
And fling us but the husks of life-nay, worse,

Trap us like beasts, with brutishness for cage?"

Here we have the typical minor poet of the

nineteenth century. He goes to an exhibition of pictures well fed and well clad, with light

laughter a rippling over the deeps of art and everything glinting gaily around him, and yet he is not happy - haunted by the vision of Millet's tramp and all the wretchedness of the unsavoury underworld that such creatures inhabit. Mr. Marzials is inordinately fond of compound words - odd nouns and adjectives, which seem often to verge on the unintelligible. What does he mean by a "godglimpse"? Or what particular atmospheric effect is that which is denoted by the term

"gloom-glory"? Of the same kind, though somewhat less obscure, are "glamour - gift," "bane-fume," "swine-sloth," and a variety of complex epithets, more Greek than English, of which we may specify "bubble-frail," " cunningarch," and "subtle-smooth."

We do not wish, however, to do Mr. Marzials any injustice, and there is after all a good deal in his work which is enjoyable. The first of the five sonnets entitled 'On a Philistine Theme' is charming, and one can only hold up astonished hands at its apologetic inscription when one finds it addressed to the author's own childsurely a permissible subject even for an æsthetic parent, and much more edifying (if we may venture to say so) than 'Death as a Harlot.' Here, too, is a fine picture of the ill-fated quest of Orpheus :

There was a glory in his face, a flame
Of victor passion dancing in his eyes,
And on his lips lingered the melodies
Had roused the dreamy dead till glad acclaim

Rang through the halls of hell, and half in shame
At his own ruth, the King said, "Death denies
No boon, sweet singer, to the song that flies
Skyward in Death's despite";-'twas thus he came
To the dread portal, thus I saw him pass
And stand without; and then the cold clear light
Of the morn smote him, and he turned, alas,
He turned a blank face back, and from his sight,
Almost his grasp, she faded. The great door
Rolled back reverberant for evermore.

It is rather difficult to wade through 'The Lost Life, and other Poems,' of Mr. E. M. Caillard. Not that his verse is devoid of a certain mechanical skill, but the triteness of his themes is really appalling. He reminds us, when at his best, of Longfellow at his worst-of Longfellow on the lower level of such lines as

Life is real, Life is earnest, And the grave is not its goal,

when the organ is grinding steadily, and the strains are issuing from it with almost maddening precision. Let us see what Mr. Caillard's tunes are like. Here is one called 'The Year's Return,' which sufficiently resembles a third-rate hymn:

I saw the year come down from God
With swift unerring flight,
His clear and radiant countenance
Shone with celestial light.

To him upon his earthward road
The joy divine was given,

The rushing of his wings was loud
With melodies of heaven.

A crown was set upon his head, &c.

The longer poems in the book are marred by the same triviality of subject and expression. We may instance 'The Lost Life,' 'The Stolen Flowers,' and a strange amorphous "Pindarique" ode (as Cowley would have called it) which rejoices in the fearful and wonderful title of 'Faint Heart never won Fair Lady'! One almost expects after that to find Mr. Caillard engaged upon a metrical illustration of "It's never too late to mend" or "Enough is as good as a feast," which last-cited gnome accurately describes our attitude towards his ambling muse. It is a pleasure to turn from the "banefumes" of Mr. Marzials and the banalities of Mr. Caillard to Mrs. Piatt's healthy and humorous poetry. There is no need at this time of day to assert her claim to recognition on our side of the Atlantic-has not her genius been honoured by a hundred pens? and have we not ourselves already given our good word to her 'Irish Garland,' and to various other happy manifestations of her peculiar vein of pathos and piquancy? Mr. Howells has rightly praised her "for not writing like a man," and it is just this feminine insight, this fortunate tact in thought and phrase, that gives her verses their unique and incommunicable charm. She is no literary Medusa whose frown freezes the hapless reader into stone, but a loving, nimble-minded, sympathetic woman, with a marvellous knack of entering (like our own

fancies and innocent mystifications of childhood. ever-to-be-lamented Mrs. Ewing) into the queer What could be better in this connexion than the following lines, supposed to be addressed by a well-to-do urchin, surfeited with civilization, to a tramp outside the window-a queer inversion, by the way, of Mr. Marzials's treat

ment of the same motive?

It's not so nice here as it looks,
With china that keeps breaking so,
And five of Mr. Tennyson's books
Too fine to look in-is it, though?
If you just had to sit here (Well!)
In satin chairs too blue to touch,
And look at flowers too sweet to smell,
In vases-would you like it much?
If you see any flowers, they grow,
And you can find them in the sun.
These are the ones we buy, you know,

In winter-time-when there are none!
Then you can sit on rocks, you see,
And walk about in water, too-

Because you have no shoes! Dear me!
How many things they let you do!
Then you can sleep out in the shade
All day, I guess, and all night too,
Because you know, you 're not afraid
Of other fellows just like you!

You have no house like this, you know,
(Where mamma's cross, and ladies call)-
You have the world to live in, though,
And that's the prettiest place of all!

From 'The Confession of my Neighbour'the story of one to whom wealth came only "when her head was white," and she had lost her nearest and dearest by death or separation -we quote the last stanza, which throbs with genuine emotion, delicately suggested and (as in all Mrs. Piatt's work that we have seen) none the less effective that it is so free from overemphasis :

Oh, if I only could have back my boys,

With their lost gloves and books for me to find,
Their scattered playthings and their pleasant noise!
.......I sit here in the splendour growing blind,
With hollow hands that backward reach, and ache
For the sweet trouble which the children make.

There is plenty of room in the world yet for verse of this quality. It is exquisitely fresh and wholesome-the unaffected utterance of one who, to use Wordsworth's delightful phrase, is "not too bright and good for human nature's daily food," and whose acquaintance it is a privilege for a member of the clumsier sex to make, even through the unsatisfying medium of this tiny volume of a hundred pages.

Neither the lighter nor the deeper modes of Mr. Owen Seaman's double pipe will catch the public ear at present, though there is no saying what the future may have in store for him, as he is obviously a very young player and may improve. At present he is evidently so agreeably surprised at his own skill that he fails to discover how little his music says. His vers de société-the "tibia sinistra "-lack point and sprightliness; his graver poems - the "tibia dextera"-need more reality and spontaneity, more thought and emotion. As yet, both in grave and gay, he produces poetic exercises rather than poems.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

One hardly knows whether to admire more the indomitable resolution of the gallant author of Scottish Moors and Indian Jungles (Hurst & Blackett), who, being paralyzed to an extent that

or even to

makes it impossible for him to ride, sit up without being supported, has managed for years to enjoy deer-stalking, grouse-shooting, and fishing, or to regret that such a spirit has not been able to find an outlet in field service of a more useful and professional kind. But as he is an excellent story-teller and a graphic sketcher from nature, the sporting world and not a few general readers will be a little consoled for the terrible accident which ended his military career. Capt. Newall begins his book with the Highland portion of his experiences, though his Indian adventures are prior in time, and date from before his accident. "Pig-stickers," tiger-slayers, and others will find plenty of wise observation, and stirring, though modestly related anecdote, concerning sporting methods and the ways of shikarries and game. But most general readers will prefer the author's account of the pleasant solitudes of the Lews, and the kindly Highlandmen to whose services he was indebted for so much sport. Though his Gaelic orthography is rather wild, and he does not seem to have picked up any of the language (indeed, he does not handle his own so well as he does the rod and gun), he writes sympathetically and sensibly of his companions the gillies and their race. Of course, there are plenty of days recorded with white stones, that on which he got an old grouse and woodcock with one shot being one of the most remarkable; but we hope our readers will refer to the book. The incident of the eagle's persistent attentions to the lady's terrier has a melancholy light thrown on it by the fate of the poor little dog on the Quantocks the other day.

We have received a pretty little illustrated book called Gibraltar, written by Dr. Field, and published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, although the author is an American. The illustrations are some good, some bad, but most of them too black to be altogether pleasant. The letterpress is fairly interesting, but padded out by quota

tions from other books not difficult of access, as, for example, the Prayer Book, and is also not free from errors. The author tells us that Gibraltar is perhaps the largest garrison in the British dominions-an observation which, combined with his amazement as to the existence at Gibraltar of two 100-ton guns and as to their performances, shows that he is no first-class military authority.

A NEATLY printed, but unpretentious catalogue has been published through Messrs. Sotheran of the printed books and manuscripts in the library of the Cathedral Church of Lichfield. The library suffered severely in the Civil War, and though its chief manuscript treasure, the famous St. Chad's Gospels, escaped destruction, most of its books, now numbering about 4,500, have been acquired subsequently, for the most part from

benefactions.

THE Belfast Library and Society for promoting Knowledge, commonly known as the Linen Hall Library, has issued an account of itself in connexion with its centenary celebration of last year. This has been carefully compiled by the honorary secretary, Mr. John Anderson, in a thin quarto volume illustrated with portraits of leading members of the Society, and with plans and

views of Belfast at different periods.

THE educated blind have no periodical suited to their special requirements, and to meet the want Miss M. E. Hodgkin and Miss E. H. Hodgkin have undertaken the task of editing, printing, and publishing (at Childwall, Richmond-on-Thames) a magazine for blind folk under the title of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of those bereft of sight. The first number for March has appeared. The price just covers the cost of production. It is printed in the embossed Braille type, perhaps the most widely used of such systems. The shape is an imperial quarto. The contents promise well. Mr. R. Le Gallienne and Mr. R. Bridges contribute original verses, and from the pen of Mr. Thomas Hodgkin comes the commencement of an interesting account of 'An English Chartreuse.' Messrs. Trübner have permitted 'He and She' to be reproduced from Sir Edwin Arnold's poetical works, and there are specimens of the lyrical writings of C. S. Calverley and Miss Procter. Fiction is represented by the first part of 'Theo, by Mrs. Frances H. Burnett, and adventure by a stirring episode from Inglis's recent 'Tent Life in Tigerland.' The editors are promised the support of several well-known writers, and most of the leading publishers have permitted their copyrights to be made use of. Altogether the Misses Hodgkin have made a creditable beginning with their benevolent undertaking.

,

"PIERRE LOTI'S" admirers will be disappointed with his Japoneries d'Automne, sent us by M. Calmann Lévy. It is inferior to the author's other works of travel, and there is in it less of the power of description which has made him famous. The book is a readable book of travels in Japan, not quite suited to English taste, and hardly striking or distinct from other foreign works of travel in Japan. The apparent decision of the French Academy, that a lieutenant in the navy must wait patiently until he is an admiral before the doors of the Academy can be opened to him, gives our author plenty of time for the production of those masterpieces which his admirers continue to expect, and which are to procure his admission to membership of the illustrious body.

M. G. D. WEIL, whose previous writings upon English legal points we have sometimes noticed, sends us Juridiction Pénale des Chambres Anglaises pour la Défense de leurs Privilèges, published by MM. Marpon & Flammarion, a little work on parliamentary privilege which is interesting in its way, but very far from complete.

We have on our table An American Hero: the Story of William Lloyd Garrison, by Frances E. Cooke (Sonnenschein), - Hymns from the

Horace, the Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles, translated, cr. 8vo. 2/ cl. (Chandos Classics.)

Livy, Book 22, edited by M. S. Dimsdale, 2/6 cl. (P. P. Series.)

Science.

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Pearson, Vol. 2, 8vo. 9/bds.

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Time, cr. 8vo. 5/ cl.

Dobell's (H.) Bacillary Consumption, its Nature, &c., 6/6 cl. Ewart's (W.) Bronchi and Pulmonary Blood-Vessels, 4to. 21/ Griffiths's (A. B.) A Treatise on Manures, or the Philosophy

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Rigveda, edited by Peter Peterson (Bombay, Government Central Book Depôt), -The Royal Commission on Education, 1886-8, edited by J. H. Hollowell (Clarke & Co.), -Thirty Thousand Years of the Earth's Past History, by MajorGeneral A. W. Drayson (Chapman & Hall), The Enchanted Island, by W. Bayliss (Allen & Co.), - Truth for its Own Sake, by W. Mawer (Sonnenschein), -Pen and Ink, by B. Matthews (Longmans), The Spell of Ashtaroth, by D. Osborne (Low), - The Prophet's Mantle, by Fabian Bland (Drane), -Galloping Days at the Deanery, by C. T. C. James (Spencer Blackett), - The Mountain Kingdom, by D. L. Johnstone (Low), - Medley Dialect Recitations, edited by G. M. Baker (Routledge), - Fibula, by the Hon. Stephen Coleridge (Kegan Paul), David, by the Rev. H. E. Stone (Nisbet), -The Hieroglyphic Bible (Field & Tuer), - The Pastoral Epistles, by the Rev. A. Plummer, D.D. (Hodder & Stoughton), -Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights (Rivingtons), - Christianity made Science, by the Rev. T. Prescott (Wil. liams & Norgate), -The Great Divine Secret, by the Rev. W. Roberts (Fisher Unwin), — The Classical Element in the New Testament, by C. H. Hoole (Macmillan), - The Form of the Christian Temple, by T. Witherow, D.D. (Edinburgh, Clark), - Le Mari de la Princesse, by O. Barot (Paris, Ducher), - La Bataille de Trafalgar, by A. de Lamartine, edited by A. C. Clapin (Hachette), -Lessing's Ausgewählte Prosa und Briefe, edited, with Notes, by H. S. White (Putnam), Observations Phonétiques sur quelques Phénomènes Néo-Grecs, by J. Psichari (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale), - Omwerkings- en Compilatie-Hypothesen Toegepast op de Apokalypse van Johannes, by G. J. Weyland (Groningen, Wolters), - La Pubblica Amministrazione e la Sociologia, by D. di Bernardo, Vol. I. (Turin, Bocca), - and Entwickelungsgeschichte des Substantivierten Infinitivs, by Dr. F. Birklein (Williams & Norgate). Among New Editions we have The Region of the Eternal Fire, by C. Marvin (Allen & Co.), - Golden South Africa, by E. P. Mathers (W. B. Whittingham & Co.), -Lexicon of Conversational French, by A. Holloway (Bell), -A Complete Course of Volapük, by I. H. Harrison (Hachette), - and Practical Vogrinz (G.): Grammatik d. Homerischen Dialektes, 7m.

Geometry for Science and Art Students, by J. Carroll (Burns & Oates).

LIST OF NEW BOOKS, ENGLISH, Theology.

Dyer's (Rev. G.) Christhood as seen in the Life Work of
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Edkins's (J.) Evolution of the Hebrew Language, demy 8vo. 5/ Euripides, Hippolytus, with Introduction and Notes by W. S. Hadley, 12mo. 2/ cl.

4m.

FOREIGN, Theology.

Loening (E.): Die Gemeindeverfassung d. Urchristenthums, Spitta (F.): Die Offenbarung d. Johannes, 12m.

Drama,

LEIGH HUNT AND CHARLES LAMB.

Trinity College, Cambridge, March 18, 1889. It is true, as Canon Ainger says he has understood, that in lecturing recently on Leigh Hunt, at the Royal Institution, I mentioned, as a fact probably unknown to my audience, that Charles Lamb was concerned in writing the famous libel in the Examiner on the Prince Regent. I mentioned at that time that my authority was Mr. Robert Browning, to whom the statement had been transmitted by John Forster. I have seen Mr. Browning since Canon Ainger's letter appeared in the Atheneum, and I find that my impression of the facts is, so far as Mr. Browning is concerned in the matter, the correct one. John Forster made the statement to Mr. Browning for the first time as early as 1837.

The evidence of John Forster is not a negligable factor in the case. He was the intimate friend of Lamb in Lamb's last days. He remained the intimate friend of Hunt. Lamb had been dead less than three years. Forster became himself the editor of the Examiner, and was therefore in exceptionally favourable position for knowing the secrets of the office. If he said that Charles Lamb was concerned in the Examiner libels on the Prince Regent, a great deal of positive evidence of a contrary kind is needed to shake our confidence in his word.

an

The famous Examiner article is said by Canon Ainger, than whom no better judge of Lamb's style exists, to exhibit no trace of that style. I venture to say that it exhibits no trace of Leigh Hunt's either. When literary men descend into the political arena their style is apt to abandon them. The truth, however, probably is that the "Adonis" article was a composite piece of writing. It was made up, no doubt, in the Examiner office by Leigh Hunt in concert with, unless Forster made a great mistake, Charles Lamb.

We must all sympathize with what Canon Ainger calls his "sentimental" arguments against the Lamb authorship. But surely he goes too far in thinking that a theory of Lamb's being concerned in the article, and yet not avowing his share, would be derogatory to Lamb's character. That must wholly depend upon circumstances. If A is the editor of a political newspaper to which B contributes; and if B writes to A's order an article which A adopts, revises, perhaps partly rewrites, and finally inserts, A, and not B, has, or may have, the entire responsibility of publication.

I cannot help thinking that Canon Ainger, quite unintentionally of course, gives a slightly erroneous impression when he says: "In his autobiography Leigh Hunt expressly asserts that he was himself the writer." As a matter of fact, Leigh Hunt, usually so clear and outspoken, is singularly ambiguous on this point. In the twenty-two pages which he devotes to this incident in the 'Autobiography' (ed. 1850, vol. ii. 114-35) he says "an article appeared" (p. 115), "the article in which the libel appeared" (p. 116), "this article was, no doubt, very bitter and contemptuous" (p. 128), and so on, in each case avoiding, as it seems to me, the direct attribution of the article to his own pen, although he takes the responsibility of it. In only one case (p. 134) Leigh Hunt says incidentally "as I had been the writer," and even this might, I think, be tortured into a declaration of no more than editorial responsibility and personal part-authorship. At all events, I believe that whoever carefully reads "The Regent and the Examiner," in the second volume of the 'Autobiography,' will think that Canon Ainger's words do not quite give the correct impression of what Leigh Hunt admits. I would not, however, be thought to hold a brief for the late Mr. Forster. I hope the ventilation of the subject may bring out fresh facts regarding an amusing am episode of literary history. EDMUND GOSSE.

* NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA.'

The Stone, Chalfont St. Giles, March 14, 1889.

Ar the end of the review of O'Meara's 'Napoleon at St. Helena,' which appeared in your number of March 9th, a mistake has been made which I am sure you will allow me to correct.

I am only responsible for the introduction to the work, not for the biographical notices.

R. W. PHIPPS, Colonel late R. A.

NOTES FROM CAMBRIDGE.

March 19, 1889.

THE term which has just concluded for lectures are now over and most of the undergraduates have gone down for the Easter vacationhas been a quiet and uneventful one. The election of Mr. Austen Leigh to the vacant Provostship of King's has been none the less welcome to the University generally because it was anticipated, while the consequent vacancy in the Vice-Provostship has been filled by the election of Mr. Whitting, whose services alike to his college and to the University are well known to all residents.

the telescope the dome and the instruments that have been used with it. It can scarcely be doubted that this gift will be gratefully accepted, and that suitable provision will be made for the reception and maintenance of a telescope the possession of which will be a source of pride to the University, and which it may well be hoped will afford a means of making important discoveries and investigations in astronomical science.

Now that the handsome Chemical Laboratory is completed and the new buildings of the Library are making rapid and satisfactory progress, proposals are being brought forward for the erection of buildings for some other departments of the University. The studies of physiology and human anatomy have for years been carried on under difficulties caused by the increasing number of students and by the unsuitability in some respects of the accommodation provided. Plans have now been prepared which will be adequate to meet the wants of both these departments of study; but it is doubtful whether the finances of the University are in such a state as to allow of their adoption in their entirety.

The report recently issued by the Local Examination Syndicate as to the examination for commercial certificates held in December last does not show the examination to have been a conspicuous success. Out of 49 candidates only 8 succeeded in obtaining certificates, and in several subjects the remarks of the examiners show that the candidates were very badly prepared. It must be remembered that this is the first time an examination of this kind has been held by the University, and it may well be that from the present small beginnings a useful and important examination may grow up. Mean time the established Local Examinations continue their useful and prosperous career. For the examinations last December no fewer than 9,601 candidates (seniors and juniors, boys and girls) were entered, of whom 6,109 passed with greater or less credit.

A settlement which is likely to be arrived at of certain important questions affecting the relations of the University and the town of Cambridge has interest for all who are concerned in the welfare of the University. The old board of Improvement Commissioners is to be merged in the new district Council, which will consist of 48 members, of whom 8 (6 councillors and 2 aldermen) will be appointed by the University and colleges; and thus for the first time in its history the University will be called on to take a direct share in the municipal life and work of Cambridge. One of the first important matters likely to occupy the attention of the new Council is the provision of a new and complete system of drainage, the necessity of which is generally

admitted.

IT was at Tenby, and in September, 1858, I received the following note: "Come round and have a chat. -Truly yours, S. C. HALL." I had not seen Mr. Hall, but he and his gifted wife were then contributing to the Art Journal 'The Book of South Wales,' and I, through the local librarian, had undertaken to write the chapters on Pembrokeshire. This brought us together, and from that time till the first day of the present year, when I received his benediction, we were on terms of familiar intercourse. A cockney chapman engaged in selling the

'The Book of South Wales' wished me to subscribe. "How does the work sell?" I asked. "Oh, very well indeed. The account of this county is much liked. But," he added with an emphatic sneer, "she does it all. Hall himself is an umbug."

Since I find that the cockney chapman's opinion is one that has prevailed pretty widely among those who should know better, I am anxious to give my own experience of Mr. S. C. Hall before the grave has closed over his remains.

I was received with courteous kindness. Meeting me at the door, he warmly shook my hand, and introduced me to Mrs. Hall as his young friend "who had been so good as to render them both invaluable service." After that I spent many evenings with them, and on their leaving Tenby we parted with almost affectionate regret. Nor did he forget me when he returned to town. He sent me illustrated books, little art objects in bronze, and, what I valued much, letters it was almost an education to read. He often told me, if I made up my mind to go to London, I was to make use of him to the extent of his power.

Two years later, that is in 1860, I did come to town, and the day after my arrival called on him at the Art Journal office in Lancaster Place. He received me with quite an unexpected warmth of feeling. He invited me to come in the evening to his house in Ashley Place, and from that moment his kindness was unceasing.

Through his grace I never had occasion to tramp the weary streets of Bohemia. In a day or two he wrote to me that his friend Dr. Charles Mackay was on the point of starting a periodical, the London Review; that he was sure I could be useful on it; and that I must call on Dr. Mackay, to whom he had written. I called, and at once was engaged to write a series of descriptive papers on the Isle of Wight. I continued to work for the Review, but this did not satisfy my friend. The secretaryship of St. George's Hospital was vacant, and Mrs. Hall and her friend Lady Shelley declared that I should have secured the appointment had we not discovered that I was too young by a year and a half. Hall was always looking out for some permanency in work for "his young friend from Tenby," as he did not approve of one relying wholly on literature for a living. Several other attempts he made on my behalf till his friend (and my friend through Mr. Hall's kindness) Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy successfully recommended me as a secretary to the Royal Archæological Institute.

"You

Meanwhile, journalism was not neglected. I had not been in London three months before Mr. Hall invited me to go over to Brussels to describe the triennial international exhibition of pictures for his magazine. It was on Saturday. I was to leave on the following day at noon by the Baron Osy, having to call on him before starting. He was in bed on the Sunday. will find your passport on the dressing-table," he said. "Besides, Mrs. Hall has given you an introduction to Madame Lemmens-Sherrington at Brussels, and to the landlord of the hotel at which you will stay. Open that purse and take four or five pounds, for the Art Journal does not pay too well, and I should like you to see Antwerp and Ghent and Bruges before you return. So enjoy yourself."

I thanked him. "There is one objection I have to raise: I don't speak Flemish." He laughed. "French will be good enough," he said. "But I don't speak French." "Bah! Your French will do. Now-" "But there is a further objection," I continued quietly: "I don't know anything of pictures!" He fairly burst into laughter. "Now be off," he said, jumping out of bed and pushing me to the door ; "be off or you will miss the boat."

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and my contribution to the Art Journal gave complete satisfaction to the editor.

It was not only in a material way one bene