16 DECEMBER 1899, Page 21

GIFT-BOCIES.—The Crock of Gold. By S. Baring-Gould. (Methuen and Co.

6s.)—Mr. Baring.f.Gould tells here in his own attractive- way twelve "fairy-tales, old and new." He puts them in a quaint setting. They are supposed to have been told by one Jeremiah Toope, a schoolmaster in Devonshire, for the consolation of the- Queen of the Fairies, whose pet hedgehog has been eaten by a. fox, Mr. Toope was badly treated by his "governing bodies" (against whom Mr. Baring-Gould must bear some special grudge),. and is finally removed, as was Thomas the Rhymer, to a place- where presumably they do not exist.—A pretty little present may be found in a " thumbnail " edition of hank Walton's. Compleat Angler (H. Frowde and Co., 1 s. net), printed on the famous India paper, and so small that it can be stowed away in a watch- pocket, if any one wears watch-pockets nowadays.—Five volumes in the " Midget Series" (Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co.) are The Enchanted Doll, by Mark Lemon, with Illustrations by- Richard Doyle ; F. W. Carove's Story Without an End, told int English by Sarah Austin, with Illustrations by Aimee G. Clifford; Favourite Fables for Tiny Trots, with Illustrations by A. S. Wilkinson; W. Blake's Songs of Innocence, with Illustrations by Clara Levetus ; and the Seven Champions of Christendom, with. Illustrations by A. G. Walker. It is sensibly suggested that these little volumes, which will travel at the penny postage, may- take the place of Christmas cards, which seem to be going some- what out of fashion.—For older readers there is a reprint of The Finger of Fate, by Captain Mayne Reid (J, Bowden, 3s. 6d.)