Coleridge, Lamb, and Leigh Hunt. Edited by S. E. Winbolt.
(Bryce. 12s. 6d. net.)—This is an excellent little book, and will be thoroughly liked by all who care for what Byron described with contemptuous bitterness as the Lakes School and the Cockney School of poets. Wordsworth and Coleridge led the former, and Leigh Hunt and Lamb the latter. The book is full of extracts from the works of these poets and prose writers, but they are arranged under a new plan. That is, the editor does not finish with one writer and then go on to another, but groups his comments according to the progress of the years. A word must be said as to the illustrations, which are most admit. ably selected, and will in many cases be new to the reader; for example, the fascinating sketch of Leigh Hunt in his eager youth. Another delightful sketch is that of Coleridge in 1812 from a drawing from the life byJ. Dawo. One cannot doubt that it is exactly what the "Prophet of Highgate" looked like in the earlier part of this stage of his life and before he reached that maturity of moist benevolence and metaphysics so cruelly and amusingly described by Carlyle. Another very delightful picture is that of "A Grecian in 1816." The " extracts " from the three writers are very well chosen, and much of the prose will be new even to well-read people.
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