Pages and Pictures from Porgotten Children's Books. Brought together by
Andrew W. Tuer. (Leadenhall Press.)—Mr. Tuer has certainly "brought together," as he modestly describes his function, a number of curious and interesting things. We have specimens—sometimes tantalisingly short—of more than a hundred children's books, of a period reaching from the year 1788 or thereabouts down to sixty odd years ago (the last date is 1830). The illustrations are abundant and curious ; as for the letterpress, it is beyond description. We find that Mr. Lear did not invent the very felicitous form of nonsense with which his name is con- nected. Here is a specimen dating from 1821 :—
"There was an Old Woman of Ealing,
She jumped till her head touched the ceiling. When 2164 Was announced at her door An a prize to th' Old Woman of Ealing."
It may be interesting to remember that the last lottery in England was drawn on October 18th,1826. "Young Wilfred" is a tragic tale of a boy who received, doubtless for good cause, two hundred stripes from his fellow-pupils, and was then expelled. Another tragedy is the story of Henry Phillips, "The Angry Boy," who was "naturally addicted to no partieular vice," but killed his mother in a fit of rage, and "entailed upon his own name the shame and infamy of a public execution." But we might fill columns with quaint specimens of what pleased the children of a century or even half-a-century ago.
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