THE AUTOLYCUS OF THE BOOKSTALL.
The Autolycus of the Bookstall. By Walter Jerrold. (J. M. Dent and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—There is an unfailing fascination in the adventures of the collector of books. Mr. Jerrold's devotion to the pursuit of bookstall-hunting has not been unrewarded. London affords many happy hunting-grounds, some of them in places that would not antecedently seem likely. There are barrows of books to be turned over among the costermongers of Farringdon Street, and regularly established stalls in the Whitechapel Road. The ordinary pawnbroker, too, gives an occasional chance. The bookseller commonly appraises the wares that he] sells correctly enough ; but the odd volumes that come into the possession of a pawnbroker give the purchaser a better chance. Oxford, im- probable as it may seem, is not an unlikely spot for good bargains. The departing undergraduate sometimes clears out his whole stock, and there are often unconsidered trifles worth the picking up. The writer of this notice bought six articles from the "penny box" of an Oxford shop and had a seventh thrown in. One of them was a pamphlet by Mr. Gokiwin Smith on " Academic Reform," which bore the autograph of a very distinguished Radical lawyer. But it is of Mr. Jerrold that we have to write. The spots which we have mentioned are familiar to him. Indeed, it would probably be difficult to mention any one that was not. He tells us about his adventures and his strokes of good fortune, and is always entertaining. Incidentally, too, he shows himself to be a literary critic of no mean order. Of the curious "finds," one of the most remarkable was the obtaining for a penny of "Passages from the Life and Death of Lord Rochester" and the "Poems of Joseph Addison" in two volumes calf. But we must send our readers to this volume if they would hear more about the books which Mr. Jerrold has picked up, how he found them, and what he thinks of them.
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