The lugoldsby Legends. Illustrated by George Cruikshank, John Leech, and
John Ten.nieL (Bentley.)—An edition de luxe of rhymes the public demand for which appears to be insatiable. It is of course magnificently got up, and the illustrations are to our thinking fuller of wit and pathos than the verses they are intended to embellish. There is a sketch (page 285) by George Cruikshank which is really a marvel in its way, the horror of the " Vade in pace !" being suggested to the mind by figures which in themselves have nothing horrible, and a spirit scene by Tenniel, in which the spirit of Miss Penelope Bird is running vengefully after the spirit of a poor cur, which in its mingling of the horrible and the comic is as good as any drawing we have seen by that artist. Mr. Bentley has wisely added to this edition the prose legends which, though less known than the rhymes and lacking their extraordinary charm of jingle, have still great merit of their own. They are not equal to Edgar Poe's stories in the same vein, but they will bear a comparison, which is in itself high praise. For those, and they are many, who genuinely enjoy Tom 1ngoldsby, this is the most perfect, as it is the handsomest, edition of his works which has yet appeared.
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