11 OCTOBER 1890, Page 43

The English Illustrated Magazine, 1889 - 90. (Macmillan and Co.)—This volume opens

with a fine "sea-poem" by Mr. Swin- burne, "On the South Coast," and is dedicated to Mr. Theodore Watts. It shows all the unrivalled rhythmical flow of Mr. Swin- burne's verse. Lord Tennyson's matchless "Crossing the Bar" is set to music by Mr. E. Villiers Stanford. In fiction, the chief contribution is Lord Lytton's "Ring of Amasis ;" but fiction is not made the leading feature by the English Illustrated Magazine, a thing for which it is much to be commended. Among what may be called the " speciality " articles of this volume are : "Heligoland," by Mr. Walter Armstrong; Eton College, for which the "Historical and Descriptive Account" is contributed by Mr. Maxwell Lyte ; "Athletics," by the Rev. Sydney R. James, and an account of the School itself by the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton ; " Highclere Castle," by Elizabeth Balch; and "A Submerged Village," by Mr. Grant Allen. (The village is Llanwyddyn, which has been turned bodily into a reservoir of the Liverpool Waterworks.) Of other papers, "Bowing at Cambridge," by Mr. R. C. Lehmann; "Rowing at Oxford," by Mr. W. H. Gren- fell ; "From Moor to Sea," by Mr. Grant Allen; " Lawmaking in Ireland," by Mr. Allan S. Cole ; and "Cricket,' by Mr. W. G. Grace, may be mentioned. Mr. Grace's paper is chiefly historical. He recalls, not inappropriately, among other facts, the victory of the first Australian eleven over the M.C.C., at Lord's, on May 20th, 1878. Mr. A. Daffen, playing the other day for Kent, took four Australian wickets for five runs. But on this occasion Mr. Spofforth got six wickets for four runs in the first innings, and Mr. Boyle, five wickets for three runs in the second. The ground, however, was in a deplorable condition, as may be seen from the fact that thirty- four wickets were secured for a hundred and five runs.