4 DECEMBER 1858, Page 31

• WORDSWODTH' F1 WHITE DOE OP RYLSTONE.•

This gift-book edition of Wordsworth's legendary narrative-poem exhibits no feature of superiority over the many other illustrated gift- books which constitute the level of that class of publication. The ele- gant paper, type, and general getting-up, are of course here, as else- where.. The wood-cut designs are landscape and figure subjects by the perennial Mr. Birket Foster, and floral decorations by Mr. Noel Humphreys. The latter are exceedingly hard, and deficient in living floral character. The former are by no means of Mr. Foster's best quality with regard to landscape, though mildly and blamelessly elegant as usual. With regard to figure-design, he ought to have too much self- respect and self-knowledge to attempt that wherein he is utterly ineffi- cient: nor can we conceive why, in the present plethora of clever and skilled designers, the publishers should commit such a task to the very hands 'which have no sort of cunning in it.

* The White Doe of Rylstone ; or the Fate of the Nortons. By William Wordsworth. Published by Longman and Co.