Bound the Table. By " The G. 0." (Horace Cox.)—The reader
might suppose that this book had something to do with King Arthur and his "table round." We may enlighten him by quoting the rest of the title. page,—." Notes on Cookery and Plain Recipes, with& Selection of Bills of Fare for Every Month." It is difficult properly to review a cookery- book without a delay which would render any notice valueless. We can only speak of the method of the book, and that seems excellent. It treats the subject rationally, does not overwhelm the reader with multitudes of recipes, most of them hopelessly expensive and complicated, but tells him how the table may be economically and elegantly served. The pre- fatory chapter, entitled "Table Talk," is full of good sense. Few per- sons, not enslaved by fashion, would deny the absurdity of putting the dessert on the table in the fashion called a /a Busse. As "the G. 0." says, "1 question the pleasure of eating salmon with a dish of candied fruit staring you in the face ;" and then the steam of hot dishes must spoil delicate flavours. On the question of keeping on the table-cloth after dinner opinions may differ. "The white table-cloth is too cold-looking," says our author. Then, on the other hand, it reflects light very brilliantly. The judicious critic compromises matters by saying that whether you should use it or no depends on the lighting of the room. If you have splendour enough above to light up the depths of a lustrous mahogany take it off, but if your lights are dull, or if you have a deal top to your table, or mahogany which has not had enough " elbow-grease " spent on it, keep it on. The advice that the dining-room should be reserved for eating only, dedicated, as our author has it, to Brillat Savarin's tenth muse, Gasterea, is unfortunately a "counsel of perfec- tion " for many of us. The room cannot be spared. With regard to. what may be called the practical part of the volume, we may say that some of the chapters have appeared in the pages of the Queen news- paper, and have there been approved by a constituency qualified to judge.
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