Tavern Anecdotes and Sayings. By Charles Hindley. (Tinsley Brothers.)—One of
the books which cannot be criticised. The stories will be very stupid to some and will entertain others, Like most collections of the kind, it has the bona qucedam, mediocria plura ; and the mule, if maks be taken to mean nothing worse than dull or stale, are not wanting. The arrangement is not very artistic, but, on the other hand, it is con- venient. A book of jest and anecdote in alphabetical order has the merit, that one can open it and lay it down when one pleases, and have the chance at least of lighting upon something worth reading. We are not much impressed with Mr. Hindley's antiquarian explanations. Does the phrase "crack a bottle" really contain any allusion to "the mis- chievous pranks of the drunken frolics of days gone by, when the bottles and glasses were broken during the bout ?" Frangere diem in Latin means to spend the best of the day, and has a special convivial usage, as in Horace's "Cum quo morantem saepe diem mere fregi," and we suspect that "cracking a bottle" has a somewhat analogous meaning. One thing certainly we like about our author, and this is that he shows that he can appreciate Dr. Johnson, who, he says, had the coat, but not the heart, of a bear."
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