5 FEBRUARY 1887, Page 23

The Watford Public Library Handbook gives an account of what

has been done under the Public Libraries Aot in a country town of moderate size. A penny rate has been imposed (it produces £240 per annum now, three times the amount it yielded fourteen years ago). There are now more than eight thousand volumes. The number of books Wined in the year was 11,002, of which 9,033 were fiction ; but it was good fiction, and that ie so math gain, though we could wish that the number did not bear so overwhelming a propor- tion to the 154 volumes of poetry that were asked for. We are bound, however, to say that we find, on looking into the catalogue, that recent poetry is bat indifferently represented. Browning, Matthew Arnold, Swint:lime, are absent.