A Banquet Book. By Cuyler Reynolds. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.
6s. net.)—The first part of this volume contains some thousands of single-line quotations from many sources, ranged under such head-. ings as " Future—Hope—Ambition" ; "Military—Naval—Hero- ism"; "Nature—Art—Seasons"; "Woman—Love." Then follows a section headed "Toasts,"—couplets, quatrains, and stanzas which may be so described. After this, "Menu Verses," in which we see a more direct reference to the " banquet " character of the book, the words being used in a secondary sense. Finally, coming to serious business, we have a variety of information really relating to banquets,—" Popular Terms [e.g., barbecue," dram:. 'flagon'] Explained " ; "Proper Wines for Certain Courses" (with roast pig you drink Floriac) ; a calendar of vintage-, from which we gather, among other things, that 1865, 1874, 1880, 1893 were "superb" vintages of champagne ; 1893, in fact, was a great time for everything but port. Its record is "superb": for champagne and claret, "excellent" for Burgundy, Hoek, and Moselle. The reader, it will be seen, begins the Banquet Book in jest and ends it in earnest.
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