10 DECEMBER 1887, Page 8

Sea - Song and River - Song : from Chaucer to Tennyson. Edited by

Estelle Davenport Adams. (George Redway.)—This volume is about equally divided between the "imperial seas" and "poor tributary rivers," as Shakespeare has it. The editor has very care- fully collected a number of classical passages from English and American poets, old and new, and she appears to have elementally overcome the copyright difficulty. We are not aware of missing anything that we might expect to find. Real readers of books aro commonly impatient of these books of extracts ; but they must have had a very wide range indeed if they do not find something new to them. Miss Adams has, we feel sure, given us here the results of a long and careful study. If this is her first venture—and though she bears a name familiar in literature, we imagine that it is—we con- gratulate her on its success. We mast not forget that the volume has for preface a poem by Mr. Swinburne, on "The Navy," and that it is illustrated by twelve etchings.