The Epicure's Year Book. (Bradbury and Evans.) — " This," we are
told in the introduction, "is not a cookery book." It has indeed a higher aim. It appeals not to the many who eat, but to the few who know how to dine. It gives us a calendar of which groat gourmets of the past are the saints, and of which the beginning and end of various shoot- ings and fishings and other similar facts are, so to speak, the lessons. Then, under the heading of each month, we have a more particular account of the various foods that are in season, and suggestions for bills of fare. Next to this come practical directions for marketing, for filling the wine-cellar, and for laying the table. The memorable dinners of 1867 with their menus are recorded. Strangers in London and Paris— and indeed many who are not strangers—receive valuable hints as to where they may best dine and sup. For a few pages the author tres- passes upon the province of the cookery book, in order to give his readers some recipes which he considers to be especially valuable. Altogether the book is a good one, in a literary point of view as good as the pro- ductions of the late Mr. Walker ; and it is useful, not indeed to the unfortunates who have to solve the problem of keeping house with 300/. a year, but to the luckier individuals who can multiply that figure by ten.
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