25 MAY 1889, Page 46

Holiday Papers. By the Rev. Harry Jones. Second Series. (Smith

and Elder.)—Mr. Jones has collected together, with very happy results, a number of occasional papers, commiscens series He has a delightful way of wandering away from his subject—but always, it must be understood, of set purpose, not as one who loses his way—and the delight of the unexpected is frequently enjoyed by his readers. The first and longest paper, for instance, " Some Clerical and College Reminiscences," is a charming discursus on the cities and thoughts of many men (as different as possible, by-the- way, from the tedious dissertations bearing that name in which a commentator, having been, one thinks, as prolix as possible in a note, shows how much more prolix he can be if he chooses). It begins with Dr. Valpy, of " Variorum " fame, and carries us we know not where. Good stories abound. Here is one, et propos of the remark that Cambridge, with its barred lower windows, looks like a city of prisons. An under-graduate was standing at one of these windows with a smile on his face, as an old peasant-woman passed by. " Ah !" she cried, " you may laugh ; but you aren't in there for no good." We may specially commend to our readers—if, indeed, there is any need of commendation—the papers, " Guy," Nep," Tres,' and Others " (dogs, we need hardly say), "Parochialia," "The Main River," " My Punt" (especially to boys of a mechanical turn). But why pick out this or that for praise ? All are thoroughly readable, full of wit and wisdom.