The Keepsakes and Forget-me-nots and other, annuals of the earlier
nineteenth century have been a subject of ridicule for decades. They were very popular in their day, but the many copies printed cannot have been very carefully preserved, for copies do not seem to be at all common. The Annual, edited by Dorothy Wellesley, with an introduction by V. Sackville West (Cobden Sanderson, 7s. 6d.), is quite charming —a reproduction outwardly of one volume, inwardly a selection from several. The " embellishments " alone strike us as worth the price of the book. It is surprising to see what great names appeared in these elegant little gift books, and in what odd company they find themselves. Tennyson is represented by " St. Agnes," S. T. Coleridge by " Youth and Age ' ; " Elizabeth Walker " stands next to Percy Bysshe Shelley ; Keats and Wordsworth play their part ; Tom Hood contributes in serious mood ; nothing here 'seems intended to be funny, though some lines aiming at tragedy do attain to comicality. We can imagine a very pleasant evening spent round the fire with this book, selections from which if read aloud judiciously may provoke smiles of delighted recollection and tears of laughter.
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