23 OCTOBER 1926, Page 36

This Week's Books

Nicwr clubs now are simply spas," sings Mr. A. P. Herbert, "_ for our young Methuselahs, so don't let's go to the dogs to-night, in_ case my granny's there. When I see the ballroom bulging with my ancestors indulging, then I've done with Mirth and Mammon. Let's go home and play backgammon." She Shanties (T. Fisher •Unwin, 5s.) may some day rank with the Bab Ballads or Bon Gaultier : it is illustrated by Mr. Zinkeisen in the manner of Doyle and Leech, while Mr. Herbert himself, lodestar of the Punch galaxy, follows Gilbert and Aytoun. We hope that every reader who believes in Herrick's advice to trust to good verses will buy this book ; it is worth a guinea a song, but we get all these little masterpieces for a dollar.

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