6 NOVEMBER 1880, Page 20

Literary Frivolities, Fancies, Follies, and Frolics. By William T. Dobson.

(Chatto and Windus.)—Mr. Dobson has collected here a number of acrostics, bouts times, anagrams, chronograms (a chronogram may be instanced by the discovery of 666, the "Num-

ber of the Beast," in the numerical equivalents of " Ludovicus," as L 50, U 5, D = 500, V = 5, I = 1, C = 100, U = 5), and a variety of other tricks which idleness and ingenuity have played with words. There is an amusing chapter on " Literary Misfortunes," to which every one who has written could probably add an appendix of his own. Collections of this sort always produce a somewhat dismal effect. But Mr. Dobson deserves credit for the pains which he has taken.