4 FEBRUARY 1888, Page 3

We regret to notice the death of Mr. Edward Lear

at San Remo last Sunday, at an advanced age. He is best known in England by the admirable "Book of Nonsense," which is as great a favourite with grown-up children as with those for whose amusement it was originally intended. Mr. Lear was also a beautiful landscape artist, and many of the foreign scenes in Greece and Egypt, which he had sketched with exquisite delicacy, could till lately,—and perhaps can still,—be seen in a little back-room in Soho. Yet so difficult is it to defy common- sense in such a way as to excite a mutiny in the minds of the sensible against the tyranny of their own invaluable gift, that Mr. Lear will probably be immortalised by his first-rate nonsense long after his beautiful contributions to the world of Art have been forgotten. Mr. Lear certainly agreed with the poet who wrote,—

" Sense may be all true and right, But, Nonsense, thou art exquisite !"