21 NOVEMBER 1885, Page 22

Amateur Work. Edited by the Author of "Every Man His

Own Mechanic." Vol. IV. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—Here a man may learn, if only Nature has given him hands (by which we mean some- thing more than extremities furnished with ten fingers), to furnish his own home, make his own fishing-tackle, paint his own pictures, bind his own books (the art of writing them does not fall within the editor's province), in short, to supply himself with pretty nearly every- thing, in the useful and ornamental way, which he can reasonably want. The enumeration, or even classification, of all these matters quite defies us. We can only say that any reader, with a turn for

carpentering or any kindred art, cannot do better than take this excellent work for a guide.