Home Education. By Charlotte M. Mason. (Regan Pool, Trench, and
Co.)—This volume contains "a course of lectures to larlies,', delivered at Bradford. The first six are devoted to "The Education of Children under Nine Years of Age," the seventh deals with " The Home Education of the Schoolboy and the Schoolgirl," the eighth with "The Training of the Young Maidens at Home." It is about girls rather than boys that the author has most to say, though her observations and suggestions are always valuable. We may mention especially the treatment (pp. 214.16) of the difficult question of the disposal of a girl's time. With boys this matter seems to settle itself easily. With girls it requires management, and very careful manage- ment. The eighth chapter is peculiarly interesting and instructive. Nothing could be more sensible, as nothing, in our opinion, could be more true, than the conclusion of the whole matter,—that "the girl wants a career, a distinct path of life for her own foot to tread, quite as much as does the boy." If we can only solve the problem of providing thin career, many of our social difficulties will disappear.
Villa-Gardening. By Edward Hobday. (Macmillan.)—This manual is not exactly what the title would lead one to expect. It is meant, says the author, " for that very large middle class who are owners or occupiers of gardens from one to eight or ten acres in extent." Even the smallest size is more than one commonly supposes to be a " villa " garden. This, however, is a matter of little importance. Mr. Hobday's instructions will not be the less useful because they may commonly have to be applied on a somewhat smaller scale than he contemplates. Flowers, hardy fruit, and fruit under glass, vegetables, whether grown in the natural coarse of things or forced, are the subjects with which he deals. Not the least useful thing in the book is the " Monthly Calendar of Work."—With this may be mentioned Familiar Garden Flowers. Figured by F. Edward Hulme, and described by Shirley Hibbard. Fifth Serioa. (Cassell and Co.)—Each flower—and they are forty in number, beginning with the foxglove—is figured in a coloured plate, and farther illus- trated by the wood-engravings which serve as initial-letters and tail.piecee. The volume is, it will be observed, a fifth series, and completes, if we may judge from the index which accompanies it, a very useful and ornamental work.
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