Tales of Other Days ; with Illustrations by GEORGE CRUICK-
SHANK.
If the text of this little volume had been worthy of the talent of the designer, or even of the beauty and spirit of the wood-cuts, we should have had a rich treat ; but it is a feast of covers only. The stories are destitute of humour and interest ; and their only merit consists in the painfully-elaborated descriptions and the studied quaintness of the dia- logue. The style is an evident imitation of the Sketch-Book ; but is about as much like WASHINGTON IRVING as HORACE SMITH'S novels are to Sir WALTER SCOTT'S. The characters are a mere masquerade of costumes. The cuts, wherever GEORGE CautcxsitaNK could make a hit, are effective ; they are all admirable as works of art ; but it would be as impossible for TaoLiosri to pirouette on a woolsack, as for CRTTICKSHANK to extract humour from these mummies of narratives. The Devil haunting the Dutchman is capital, and the vignette of that subject in the titlepage is quite in the spirit of Peter Schlemil. The knight in the ditch is also good. But those designs from serious stories are the best ; for they are not, like the others, robbed of their fun by the dulness of the story. The wood engravings are rich, firm, and effective, and are admirable for beauty, spirit, and fidelity,—the duel
scene in "Roger Clevelly" la particular. .
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