A Christmas Garland : Carols and Poems. Edited by A.
H. Batten. (John C. Nimuto.)—Mr. Batten divides his "Carols and Poems from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time" into three parts, " Christmas Chants and Carols," " Carmine Sacra," and "Christmas Customs and Christmas Cheer." These make.np together between seventy and eighty poems of one kind and another. The selection has been carefully made from a wide range of authors. Indeed, it is curious to see the very mixed company which the subject of Christmas has brought together,—as, indeed, it is quite right that it should. Altogether, the result is a very interesting book. There have been added seven illustrations, which are least successful when they are most ambitious (ride the picture that faces p. 10, of the appearance of the angel to the Bethlehem shepherds). The look of the volume, both within and without, is appropriate and neat. We may mention in company with this, Gems Pons the Poets. 'Illus- trated. (IV. Swan Sonnenschein.)—The extracts are, with one or two exceptions, familiar (" The Snow-Storm," by Eruessa, being one of the few). The illustrations are in chromo-lithograph, somewhat crude in colour.
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