On Both &den the Border. By G. A. Henty. (Blackie
and Son.)—" A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower" promises well, nor does the performance fall short. The politics of the time are highly interesting, and they have a setting of romantic adven- ture. The ten months that began with Homildon Hill (Septem- ber 14th, 1402) and ended with Shrewsbury (July 23rd, 1403) can be matched for striking personalities and important events with any in our history. And if we venture into the realm of the "might have been," how fruitful a theme for speculation is the thought that if, as Mr. Henty puts it, "the Royal forces had arrived one day later at Shrewsbury." The house of Lancaster would have fallen sixty years sooner, and England would have been spared the exhaustion of more than half a century of foreign and civil war. The story has Mr. Henty's usual merits, and, we might say, the not uncommon defect of delay in getting to the real subject. Homildon Hill is not reached before p. 332, and Shrewsbury is the end.
We have received of Sunday books for children :—In the " Red Nursery Series," Old Testament Stories, by the Rev. Robert Tuck, RA. (S.S.U.),—told simply and with considerable spirit.—Of a less serious kind is Pretty Polly, by Edith Carrington (T. Nelson and Sons), described as "a Volume of Pictures of Birdland, with Stories." Miss Carrington has done good service to the cause of kindness to animals, and this pretty little volume will help it.— From the same author and publishers we have Round The Farm," a Picture Book of Pets, with Stories."—The New Noah's Ark, by J. J. Bett (J. Lane), is a volume of comic sketches and verses of considerable merit.—In the series of "Walter Crane's Picture Books" (same publisher) we have stories of the old favourites, with new adornments, the new, we need hardly say, being well worthy of the old.—Sybil's Garden of Pleasant Beasts. By Sybil and Katharine Corbet. (Duckworth and Co.)—An amusing col- lection intended for quite young children.—These will also enjoy Round-About Rhymes, written and pictured by Mrs. Percy Dearmer (Blackie and Son), and Dr. Jollyboy's A.B.C., with Drawings by Gordon Browne (Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co.) —For readers somewhat more advanced in age and attainment we have Fables by Pal, with Illustrations by Philip Burne-Jones (Duckworth and Co.)
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