The Garden : as Considered in Literature by certain Polite
Writers. Edited by Walter Howe. With Portrait of W. Kent. "Knicker- bocker Nuggets." (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.)— We are told that these little books are offered "as specimens as well of artistic typography as of the best literature;" and they are very charming in their dainty covers. The present volume is a good selection, from English essayists prior to this century, of English thought upon its old gardens. It is pleasant reading, though these modern booklets can never give the bookworm the delight that comes from handling the volumes (as small and more exquisitely bound) often used simply as panelling in our libraries. But even the bookworm cannot always have libraries, and here is a delightful gift to any gardening folk who can feel the charms of literary memories and allusions, but would be lost among the volumes from which it is compiled. Any one who has seen a certain side of the American nature, of which Hawthorne's ethereal genius was the blossom, will think it suggestive enough to find the stately Anglo-Italian garden, the quaint, exquisite essayists, subject and authors of the somewhat novel venture of the American publisher. The tiny volume may be a reminiscence to some, a hint to others, and a pleasure to all.
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