21 OCTOBER 1922, Page 49

SKETCHES FROM A LIBRARY WINDOW. By Basil Anderton. (Cambridge :

Heifer. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mr.

Anderton is at his best in recounting his discoveries in the by-ways of literature ; with the luck of a true bibliophile he has rescued from the lumber-rooms of the past two thoroughly interesting books. One is the autobiography of a Newcastle sailor who lived and fought and died in the French wars of a hundred years ago : the other a " gourmand's breviary," an ecstatic description of the joys of five-hour meals, and of the methods of their preparation. When he takes to literary criticism he is not successful ; the essay on Wordsworth is commonplace, and that on Sir Thomas Browne overloaded with not very competent technical analysis.