Favilla's Follies. By Ella Winter. 2 vols. (Newby.)—If Miss Winter
could govern her pen, which, as it is, simply runs away with her, she might write something which we could read without an effort, even with pleasure. Favilla herself we do not care much about ; she follows the common course of falling in love with a rogue, and \e acting the affection of an honest man. Nor is the character of either the knave or the honest man particularly well drawn or attractive. But some of the minor personages are better. There is an old general who expresses himself with much vigour in the first chapter, but, unhappily, we see no more of him. The very slight sketch of Mrs. Mag, the old Scotch servant, is good, and BO is that of La Rousso, Favilla's factotum
during her life as prima donna. •
We have received Letts's useful Diaries for 1870 ; Letts's Diary or Bills' Due Book, with an almanack, evidently intended for commercial men, Lette's Appointment Diary and Pocket-Book, which contains a line for each hour between 9 and 6 of every day, in order to note the hour of engagements when needful ; Lett's Broad One Shilling Diary, ruled for Dr. and Cr. accounts, or receipts and payments, with faint blue lines, so that they may be written over, if necessary, for memoranda only ; Letts's Medical Diary, along one, in the shape of a small thin lodger, intended for general practitioners, with a page for nurses' residences, some pages for midwifery engagements, for vaccination engagements, and room for the notes of the patients attended on each day of the year ; and finally, Letta's Sixpenny Diary, one of the best and cheapest at its price.
We have also received the first volume of a new edition of Mr. Joseph Nash's Mansions of England in the Olden Time. (Sotheran.) The original work is so well known and so highly esteemed, that it is not necessary to do more than describe the present republication. It will be completed in four half-yearly volumes, each containing twenty-six plates. These are fac-similos of the original lithographs reduced to half-size. The price, we may observe, is somewhat less than half that of the original edition. The most noticeable feature of the volume before us is the set of plates representing Haddon Hall.—Nothing that has come before us at this time is of greater and more permanent interest and value than Mastopieces of the Early Printers and Engravers. By Noel Humphreys. (Sotheran.) In a very handsome volume we have seventy plates, accompanied by letter- press explanatory of the designs, and describing the sources from which they are derived. Those are a selection of "illustrations " from early printed books, ranging in date from about 1480 to 1578. It may well be imagined that there could not be a more curious and instructive contrast to tho "illustrated books" which crowd upon us in the present day. Albrecht Darer, Lucas Cranach, both the elder and the younger of the name, Hans Schitufelein, &c., are the best known of the artists from whom specimens are given. The original books are, of course, exceedingly rare, and in many cases difficult, if not impossible, of access. Mr. Noel Humphreys has, indeed, made his selection for the most part from those which are less known, and he deserves the thanks of all lovers of art for his admirable work. From such a number it is not easy to make a choice, but we may mention as peculiarly happy and charac- teristic specimens, the "Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian," by A. Dfirer, dated 1519, and Lucas Cranach*s "St. John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness."—In a very different style of art is the Lord's Prayer 111ustratec4 by F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., and Henry Alford, D.D. (Long- mans.) Mr. Pickeragill's designs are not without a certain grace and prettiness, but they are conventionally smooth, even to the point of feebleness. The faces in particular are singularly deficient in character. Let any look at the design that faces p. 30, where the maidens, who. are the heroines of Dean Alford's versified novelettes, pass by the village revellers, a scene which affords obvious opportunities to a vigorous pencil, and he can scarcely fail to agree with our criticism. Dr. Alford tells the story of two sisters, the younger of whom acts as good genius to the elder, when she is brought almost to disap- pointment in love. The periods of the tale are marked by the clauses of the Prayer. The subject is not a very happy one, but it is treated with some considerable poetical skill in verse, which seldom fails in grace and melody, except, indeed, when Dean Alford attempts, as on p. 29, some strange metre which we, at least, have not the skill to read or scan. —Robinson Crusoe appears with an introduction by Mr. W. Lee, editor of the newly discovered writings of Daniel Defoe, and illustrations by Ernest Onset (Hotten). This reprint gives exactly the text of the earliest edition, that of 1719. This, of course, gives it a special value. We notice, by the way, a challenge to the editor of the "Globe" Robinson Crusoe, who speaks of having collated the edition of 1719 with earlier editions, there being, according to Mr. Hotten, none that are earlier. M. Onset's illustrations disappoint us. We were so much impressed by his .,Esop that we expected great things here, but he is not equally successful. Robinson, Crusoe is, above all things, a serious book. There is no fun in it, nor is there meant to be, but there is a very strong element of caticature in these illustrations. The savages, for instance, are travesties of human figures. Crusoe, again, when he discovers the remains of the cannibal feast strikes a wholly impossible attitude. But some of the sketches are good. That of Crusoe reading the Bible is par- ticularly so.—A Practical Manual of Shipping Law, by W. A. Oliver (fmray ; Routledge); an analysis of the New Bankruptcy Act, by T. T. Weightman, B.A. (Routledge); and A Plain Guide for Suitors in the County Court, by a Barrister (Virtue). We cannot help taking the opportunity of this last book to make known a grievance and a sugges- tion of our own. Some years ago the writer was imposed upon by a landlady in a northern watering-place. She had the legal right to detain his goods. He had his remedy in the County Court, which held. its next Betting about the end of October, it being then the end of August. The said watering-place was two hundred miles from home, and he, of course, put up with the wrong. Why should not the magistrates have a power of hearing in such cases? They could always command the services of an assessor.
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