Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton have published an edition de duxe
of Mr. J. M. Barrie's Auld Licht Idylls. It is beautifully printed on large paper; but the most notable feature of it is the illustrations, which have been executed by Mr. William Hole. These include several scenes which readers' of the Idylls will readily recall,—such as "A Race for a Wife," "Saturday Night in the Square," and "Black-Fishing." They are good in their way, but the portraits are still better, including, as they do, Mr. Dishart (engaged in thumping the leaves out of the pulpit Bible, and the unbelief out of his unregenerate hearers), Lang Tammas, Sandy Whamond, the old Dominie, Smicky Hobart (the bellman), and "The Literary Spunk-Seller." The two last are perfect ; but indeed the book is now, from the artistic no less than from the literary standpoint, a gallery of the most interesting, if not the most lovable, of genuinely Scotch characters. This is the edition of Auld Licht Idylls for whoever can afford to buy it.
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