3 JANUARY 1891, Page 32

A Bride from the Bush. By Ernest William Hornung. (Smith,

Elder, and Co.)—Alfred Bligh, elder son of an English Judge, marries an Australian girl. It is carefully explained, indeed the girl says herself, that she is not a typical Australian girl. To put the matter plainly, she is something of a savage, though an honest, high-spirited, right-thinking young woman. She " flutters the dovecots" of decorous English society by various exploits which would be nothing more than commonplace in the bush, but which are certainly startling in the Judge's Thames-side villa. There are some minds to which reading about such things is not agreeable, and we meet own to having something of this feeling. The situation, however, is sufficiently well described by Mr. Hornung, and the tale brought to its proper termination. It would spoil its interest to say what this is, but the reader will not be dissatisfied. The literary merit of the book is certainly above the average, though the subject will not be to every one's taste.

Messrs. Watson, Hazell, and Viney publish a series of useful little volumes, under the title of "Pascoe's Illustrated Pocket- Books." These are compiled by Charles Eyre Pascoe. They are in stiff paper covers, contain some eighty or ninety peges, measure about 6 in, by tin., and weigh about 3 oz. They seem carefully put together, and give the information that the average tourist may be reasonably supposed to want. The volumes before us, London in Litae, The Roads from Paris to London, The American Roads through England (specially intended for the use of Ameri- o ms, who, however, will miss a good deal, especially in the objects of their literary pilgrimages), Eastbourne and Hastings, and Brighton. The, illustrations are fairly good.