Verse and Worse. A Private Collection by Arnold Silcock. (Faber.
12s. 6d.) MR. Su.com has a very pleasant taste in comic and curious verse, in the making of which he is himself an accomplished practi- tioner. His taste is for rustic humour rather than urban, for the arrow of ridicule rather than the punster's blunt axe. He draws little, therefore, on Hood or Barham, moderately on Carroll and Calverley, and heavily on occasional parody and invective. His pidgin-English choices from C. G. Leland—better known for his " Breitmann Ballads "—are unexpectedly charming ; his handful of limericks are excellent ; and with these there is a scattering of traditional rhymes, also a sharp peppering of contribu- tions from the anthologist himself and his circle of friends. Altogether there is a delightful mingling of the familiar with the unfamiliar, the kind and unkind, the latter in each case predominating. Mr. Silcock's introductions to each section and Mr. V. H. Drummond's Lear-ish drawings greatly add to the pleasures of this most suitable Christmas present, which should be given to a close member of one's family to be read aloud at suitable intervals during Boxing
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