25 MAY 1918, Page 16

Remnants. By Desmond MacCarthy. (Constable and Co. Ss. net.) —These

occasional essays, reprinted from weekly journals, are light and amusing even when they deal with apparently stern topics like " Meredith's Method," Samuel Butler, or " The G.O.M." The author is at his best in writing of music-hall celebrities like Dan Leno, or of the famous showman Lord George Sanger—who, it seems; assumed the title and was not christened " Lord "—or of lion-taming or fraudulent picture-dealers. There is a pleasant variety in this clever little book.