Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. send us a very numerous
collection of Calendars, Cards, Pocket-books, &c. The calendars are of every kind, presenting a quite extraordinary variety of quality and design. One of the most interesting is the " Modern Poets' Calendar." We are not sure that we should have made the same selection. Sir Edwin Arnold, for instance, might have been pre- ferred,—we will not say to whom, but certainly to some one. The publishers, indeed, have selected the twelve " modern poets " as if they had been arranging for a dinner-party, a lady for each gentleman. That is polite ; but in the first twelve poets of the day we certainly should not find six women. One there is, Miss Jean Ingelow, and she is here. The "Golden Age Calendar" is a particularly good piece of work. Among a multitude of articles which it is difficult to specify, we may mention a collection of verses entitled A Christmas Posy, with poems by R. L. Stevenson, Norman Gale, Richard Le Gallienne, and others. There are various forms, all elegant and convenient, of Marcus Ward's Concise Diary. We have had the pleasure of noticing Messrs. Ward's productions for some years. This time they have surpassed themselves.
We have received from Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons a selection from their very large stock—the general catalogue runs to more than one hundred and sixty pages—of Christmas and New Year Cards, Calendars, &c. It is quite impossible to give any adequate distinctive notice of these very tasteful and well- executed articles. Generally, we may mention the Platino panels and leaflets ; these are not only beautiful, but durable. One very good specimen consists of four landscapes, " By Wood and Stream." There are some well-designed calendars ; one especially may be mentioned with a heartsease design. Some of the booklets again, especially those which have illustrated hymns as their contents, would be desirable gifts. "Dew from Heaven," with a forget-me-not cover, a text-book for a week with selections from Frances Ridley Havergal, and illustrated by Ellen Welby and others, is a good specimen. As for the cards, we can only say that every taste should be easily satisfied. If the comic is desired, there are such as "Fun on the Sands," with its spirited figures of donkeys, with their riders and drivers, the animals being constructed to stand and admit of being mounted.
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