The Business of Pleasure. By Edmund Yates. 2 vols. (Chapman
and Hall.)—Mr. Yates has re-published in these volumes a number of magazine articles. Some two or three relate to the machinery by which the requirements of London pleasure-seekers are served ; thus the busi- ness details of Cremorne, the Greenwich hotels, Pickford's, and the omnibus system, &c., are described at length ; and we have statistics as to the consumption of pigeon-pies and quarts of peas, the nationality of the waiters, the length of time that cabs are out on a stretch, and such like matters. This may be all very well, and some people may like to have these interesting facts preserved for perpetual reference, but there are a great many other papers in these volumes which might really have been left in the retirement of the past and gone serial. The account of a forgotten prize-fight, the somewhat exhausted fun of behind-the-scene descriptions and visits to suburban theatres, and such mild joking as is contained in the three chapters on the "Grimgribber Rifle Corps," seem scarcely intended for the immortalization of separate publication. There may be those who differ from us, and who cannot have too much of the rattle, and the jerk, and the conventional humour of the modern smart magazine article, and to them we recommend these volumes.
Previous page
