1 FEBRUARY 1896, Page 24

Our Square and Circle. By "Jack Easel." (Smith, Elder, and

Co.)—The author, who commends himself to his readers by the description of " Sometime Punch's ' Roving ' Correspondent," gives us some entertaining sketches of how he chose and fur- nished his suburban house, and of the agreeables and dis- agreeables of the life that he leads in it. He gossips with us about some of the runes with which he adorns his shelves, about his pets—very pleasant talk this—about his books (discoursing in this chapter on Sismondi, Gibbon, Lecky, Darwin)," The Anatomy of Melancholy,"—cum muitis aliis. Then we have something about foreign travel, and about various other matters, and what- ever we have is readable. There are no particularly good stories, but the average is satisfactory.