A Sailor's Garland. Selected and Edited by John Masefield. (Methuen
and Co. 3s. 6d.)—Though this volume hardly comes into the class of "gift-books," yet we gladly take this occasion of mentioning it as distinctly qualified for a book which should be given. Mr. Masefield is at home in his subject, and he has looked far and wide and into not a few out-of-the-way and forgotten corners for the flowers which he has woven for us here. He begins with an interesting introductory chapter. He remarks with perfect truth that our earlier poets "hardly felt the beauty of the sea, though they saw its terror,"—that eminently seafaring nation, the Greeks, seem never to have felt it at all. Still, there is plenty of material out of which to choose ; and Mr. Masefield gives us an excellent conspectus of it, with some pertinent criticism. Perhaps he is a little hard on Dibdin, whose work he describes as " mawkish nonsense." He quotes from him only one piece, "Tom Bowling." Yet there must have been something more in
him to make him so popular. As to the selection, of course it is easier to mention omissions than to give credit for pieces properly chosen. But why nothing of Thomas Campbell? Or are "Ye Mariners of England," " Copenhagen," &c., only parts of " the mass of verse, mostly execrable," which was inspired by the Napoleonic War? As to quite recent verse, we suppose the omissions are due to copyright difficulties. Hence the absence of "The Revenge" and the non-appearance of Mr. Swinburne's name in the list of poets.
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