12 APRIL 1890, Page 24

British Reason in English Rhyme. By Henry Halford Vaughan, M.A.

(Kagan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—Mr. Vaughan, whom some of our readers will remember as Professor of Modern History at Oxford, employed his last years in collecting and translating into English rhyme Welsh proverbs. Here are some specimens :— " He on the fight has most to say,

Who in the fight will ran away."

"No botanist that ever wrote Had half the knowledge of a goat."

"Handsome slices can we make When we cut our neighbour's cake."

Mr. Vaughan's industry collected and versified more than 2,600 of these proverbs. The Celtic races, whatever their practical wisdom may be, are certainly very rich in these terse expressions of it.