CURRENT LITERATURE.
Cucumber Chronicles. By J. Ashby-Sterry. (Sampson Low and Co.)—This pleasant little volume ought to have been noticed some time ago. It seems now again quite appropriate, with its preface beginning, " The sky is cloudless, the sun is brilliant." But our welcome to it, though tardy, is sincere. Nothing could be better in its way than the essay on "The Superior Animal" (need we say that the animal in question is the dog ?) In another style are " The Wooden Midshipman," a pilgrimage to the shop once kept by Solomon Gills, nautical instrument maker ; and " Miss Betsy Trotwood's," a reminiscence of "David Copperfield." "The Haunted Precinct," too, a sketch of the Temple, has a very pleasant literary flavour. Altogether, "this book to be taken in slices," to quote the author's prescription, will be found pleasant and wholesome mental food.—Ignorant Essays (Ward and Downey) are chiefly of the critical kind. To criticise them would take one into many regions whither time forbids us to journey. Perhaps the best essay, however, is one not critical, " The Best Two Books," a sub-humorous sketch of what may be found in a dictionary and an almanack.
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