Murray's Handbook to England and Wales (John Murray) is an
alphabetical guide to all the chief places of interest in England and Wales, with the information brought up to date.—To the same well-known series also belong Hurray's Handbook to Algeria and Tunis, by Sir R. Lambert Playfair, " a fourth edition, thoroughly revised ;" and, by the same author, Hurray's Hand- book to the Mediterranean, its Cities, Coasts, and Islands, in two volumes. The first contains North Africa, the Levant, Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe, the Greek Archipelago, Cyprus and Malta, and Greece; the second includes such parts of the Mediter- ranean coasts as belong to Austria, Italy, France, and Spain (with Gibraltar).
The Spenser Society begins a new issue of publications with the first part of Michael Drayton's Polyolbion : a Geographical Description of Great Britain. This is a reprint from the edition of 1622, dedicated to Prince Henry, on whose picture, as he stands lance in hand, Britain is bid to look. The lines are curious :— " Britaine, behold here portrajd, to thy sight, Henry, thy best hope, and the world's delight ; Ordained to make thy eight Great Henries shine : Who, by that vertue in the treble Trine, To his own goodnesse (in his Being) brings These severall Glories of th' eight English Kings; Deep Knowledge, Greatness, Long Life, Policy, Courage, Zeale, Fortune, awfull Majestic."
The notes and maps are curious and interesting ; and altogether the Polyolbion has a very different aspect from that presented by it when it appears, bare and without illustration, in " The British Poets."
In the series of " Men of the Bible " (James Nisbet and Co.), we have two volumes,—The Lives and Times of the Kings of Israel and Judea, by George Rawlinson, M.A. ; and Joshua : his Life and Times, by the Rev. William J. Deane,—both careful studies by writers who have proved their competence to deal with these sub- jects by more than one work of acknowledged merit.
A work of sterling value, which should take its place at once as a standard book, is The Library Reference Atlas of the World, by John Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. (Macmillan and Co.)—In eighty- four maps, each of double-page size, it gives the latest information in geography, economical, political, commercial, &c. Physical features, such as height of land and depth of sea, climatic con- ditions, &c., are given. Great Britain is pictured in twelve maps, and Ireland in five more. The United States and the Eastern Provinces of the Canadian Dominion are fully represented, Western Canada being rather summarily passed over in one. The environs of the great American cities are given, as are those of Melbourne and Sydney. The index contains, we are told, more than ten thou- sand names.—We have also to mention Stanford's London Atlas of Universal Geography, with its forty-six maps (Edward Stanford), and an Atlas of Commercial Geography, by J. G. Bartholomew (Cambridge University Press), a volume of "The Pitt Press Series." —An "extra memoir" from the Egypt Exploration Fund is Two Hieroglyphic Papyri from Tanis. (Trdbner.)—Mr. F. L. Griffith has interpreted the Sign Papyrus, which may be loosely called a hieroglyphic alphabet ; and Mr. W. M. F. Petrie, with the collaboration of Professor H. Brugsell, the Geographical Papyrus. This latter seems to be a calendar put together by an inhabitant of Egypt of the Roman period.
We have received the eighth volume of Burdett's Official Intelli- gence of British, American, and Foreign Securities. (Spottiswoode and Co.; Effingham Wilson and Co.)—This massive volume (it contains between fifteen and sixteen hundred pages) gives, for we cannot do better than quote from the title-page, " a carefully revised précis of information regarding all British, American, and Foreign securities, including Government, Corporation, Colonial, and Foreign stocks; railways, banks, canals, docks, electric lighting, financial, gas, insurance, land, mining, shipping, telegraphs, tramways, waterworks, and other commercial and industrial com- panies known to the London market and dealt in on the principal Exchanges." It contains, also, special chapters on County, Colonial, Indian, and Municipal finances and railways. It is published, it should be said, under the sanction of the Com- mittee of the Stock Exchange, and is, in some occupations, indispenable.—We have also to record the second issue of The Metropolitan Year-Book. (Cassell and Co.)—It may be said that the principal subject of the volume is the London County Council; but the Corporation, the School Board, and all the variety—it may almost be said, the chaotic variety—of authorities, parochial, sanitary, educational, &c., is included. Nor is amusement forgotten. Clubs of various kinds, sporting and other, are enrolled. In fact, it is the quicquid agunt homines urbani that we get here. —We do not know whether we have seen The Dairy Annual, edited by James Long (W. H. Allen and Co.), before, but we may commend it to our readers as a treasury of knowledge on an important subject, nothing less than a mainstay of British agriculture.
We have to acknowledge a very handsome volume, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures belonging to the Earl of North- brook. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)—Mr. W. H. James Weale con- tributes the notes on the Dutch, Flemish, and French Schools , Dr. Jean Paul Richter those on the Italian and Spanish Schools.
It is needless to speak in praise of The City of London Directory. (Collingridge and Co.)—We have now its twentieth annual issue before us. Nothing could be more complete, and the judicious delay which keeps its publication back to this time enables the conductors to give corrections and additions which are very useful. One of the chief features of the book, it will be remembered, has always been the account of the Livery Companies. We have received the annual issues for 1888-89 (bound in one volume) of a useful and interesting publication, which bears the title of In His Name (J. F. Shaw), and is the " Record of the Ragged School and Mission Union."
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