" QUEERY LEARY NONSENSE."* ?LOVERS of true and sound nonsense

owe a debt of gratitude to Lady Strachey and Lord Cromer for their respective shares in putting together a volume of hitherto unpublished matter lboth letterpress and illustrations) from the pen and pencil -of Edward Lear. In one of Lear's letters to her uncle, Lord Carlingford, Lady Strachey came across the phrase "Queery Leary Nonsense," and she very wisely appropriated it as the title of her miscellany.

The most important portion of the new volume is the -reproduction of " The Bird Book "—a delightful volume of nonsense birds which Lear prepared for Lord Cromer's eldest boy when he was about three years old. The child's mother -expressed the wish that he should acquire some knowledge of colour. "Lear, with his usual kindness "—we quote from Lord Cromer's Introduction—" at once sent twenty drawings of -birds of various colours, including of course his favourites, the Scroobious and the Runcible birds." This bird book is -now reproduced, and exceedingly well reproduced in colour. The " light red bird " is a mild and pleasant fellow. The

• scroobious bird" with his angry colouring, beady

black eye, and determined outline is all that a -" scroobious " bird ought to be. Very charming are the -" Dark Blue Bird" and the "Gray Bird." The "Runcible Bird " is thin and somewhat forlorn, and has the mingled look of elegance and irritation which one might expect from his name. In " The Light Green Bird " politicians may perhaps find something of Mr. Redmond. The " White Bird" seems to suggest the Establishment, and the "Lilac Bird" a member of the Nonconformist hierarchy. The " Crimson Bird" and -" The Yellow Bird " are full of spirit. Lord Cromer's intro- --auction is worthy of the subject and worthy of the writer, and treats with becoming seriousness the high theme with which it deals. Lear and Lord Cromer first became acquainted when the latter was a young artillery subaltern and A.D.C. to the High Commissioner of .the Ionian Islands,

(I) Queery Lean Nonsense. Compiled by Lady Strachey, with an Introduc- tion by the Earl of Cromer. London Mills and Boon. [Ss. 6d. net.]—(2) ;_Later Letters of EdwOrd Lear. Edited by Lady Strachey. - London T. Fisher Unwin. [its. net.]

and the artist was sketching at Corfu. Lord Cromer incorporates with his criticism some delightful letters and. illustrations—one of Lear playing and singing " Tears, Idle Tears," and another in which he is flying with wings like those of a cherub. The letters are not very important though couched in Lear's delightful nonsense jargon, but there is something singularly attractive about such a beginning as " Beneficial and Bricklike Baring."

We wish we bad space to quote Lord Cromer's disquisition on nonsense words and note in detail how he points out that the genius of great nonsense authors like Lear and Lewis Carroll is shown in their construction of new words. Who, he asks, can describe a " Scroobious " or a "Runcible " bird ? Yet the man who does not at once grasp the fact that the outward appearance and special characteristics of these two birds must of necessity differ widely must be wholly wanting in imagination.

We must pass on to give some account of the additions to nonsense literature made in what we may term Lady Strachey's half of the book. She gives ua some perfectly enchanting illus- tration's of Nursery Rhymes. Those dedicated to " Hey diddle, diddle,

The Cat and the Fiddle" are peculiarly delightful. The cat playing the fiddle, or rather the 'cello, is one of Lear's most spirited creations. Fas- cinating, too, are the pictures to serve as illustrations for "Sing a Song of Sixpence."

That which belongs to the line "When the pie was opened the birds began to sing" shows rows and rows of merry little dicky birds with their mouths wide open and with music scores in front of them. The birds carol away with a con• scientious vehemence which is most attractive. Perhaps, however, the most original of this nonsense rhymes series is the almost Egyptian bas-relief of the Queen eating bread and honey. We have also three new illustrations to " The Owl and the Pussy Cat." The volume concludes with some moving poetry. From "Dingle Bank" we quote the first verse :

"He lived at Dingle Bank—he did; He lived at Dingle Bank;

And in his garden was one Quail Four tulips and a Tank :

And from his windows he could see The otion and the River Dee." - Readers, old and young, will find no small joy in the poem called "Spots of Greece," written for Miss Lushington. More apt for quotation, however, is the "Epitaph," the fatuous charm of which holds alike the ear and the brain.

" Beneath these high Cathedral stairs Lie the Temains of Susan Pares. Her name was Wiggs, it was not Pares, But Pares was put to rhyme with stairs."

The manner of the epitaph has had many imitators in recent years, but none can touch the master in this form of composi. tion. "The Youthful Cove" describes how "Seven folks— one female and six male "—seized upon "the youthful cove" and tried to educate him. We must, however, leave our readers to find out for themselves how the project prospered, nor can we extract the first versibn of "Mrs. Jaypher." "A Verse of Another Version " is as follows :— " Mrs. Jaypher said it's safer If you've lemons in your head First to eat a pound of meat And then to go at once to bed."

With our notice of the Queery Leary Nonsense book we may couple the volume of Later Letters of Edward Lear to Lord Carlingford and Frances Countess Waldegrave, also edited, by Lady Strachey, a volume which may be described as a sequel to the volumes published in 1907. The new book continues the correspondence from the year 1864 to the painter's death in 1888. Besides the Introduction by Lady Strachey, giving some facts as to the material of the volume, there is a Preface by Mr. Hubert Congreve, a close friend of Lear's during his San Remo days. The Preface conveys a most pleasant impression of the old landscape painter. Unfortunately we have not space to pick out examples of the good things to be found in the letters. We can only say that they will amply repay the trouble of those who read them. They are full of wise, witty, and humorous comments, and frequently enlivened by enchanting little nonsense scribbles of men and beasts. :In addition- the book

..contains a number of full-page illustrations from Lear's pictures. In our opinion—and we believe it will be one fully -endorsed by most readers—the black-and-white illustrations are very much to be preferred to the three-colour-process reproduction of a water-colour of "Benares," which forms the .frontispiece to the volume. We admit we have seen worse

• examples of this garish and deplorable process, but it cannot in any true sense be said to give the refinement of Lear's, or indeed of any other artist's, colouring. Very different is the effect produced by the reproduction in black and white of majestic cliffs, dropping sheer into the sea, entitled " Cenc, Isle of 'Gozo, Malta." The scene which he transferred to his canvas is described in a letter to Lady Waldegrave. Of Gozo he says: "Its coast scenery may truly be called pomskizillious ,and gromphibberous, being as no words can describe its

• magnificence "—a good example of how emotion in Lear stimulated the flow of nonsense. Another very 'wonderful illustration is the reproduction of a sepia drawing entitled Ceriana, Italy." We are glad to see that at the end of her book Lady Strachey has given a list of the principal pictures

• exhibited by Edward Lear at the Royal Academy. The list ,begins in 1850 with "Claude Lorraine's House on the Tiber," and ends in 1873 with " The Monastery of Megaspelion in the Morea."

Lear's work as a serious landscape artist has never had full :justice done to it. This is no doubt partly due to the fact that though the public will lavishly bestow their appreciation on very bad pictures they will hardly ever give the temperate appreciation due to good pictures of the second or third rank. ' They seem only to like the very best or the very worst. In Lear's case, however, the want of public approbation for his Tictures, which, if far below the great, are certainly quite among the good, was perhaps due to the fact that the public first learned to think of him as a writer of nonsense rhymes, and would never regard him seriously in any other capacity. In this region he admittedly belongs to the immortals. Very, very little really original and therefore creative work is accomplished in any one generation. Most men only copy copies of copies of copies. Originality in literature or art or in the field of humour is the rarest thing in the whole world. Therefore his fame shall remain while so much that " delighted the Ring" in his time has already flaunted and gone down unregarded and forgotten.