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tombs and temples, for the information which it contains, the scholarly character of the observations which the author from time to time makes, the rich descriptive passages which illumine the letter-press, the gorgeous plates and the general excellence of the volume. The Harpers have excelled themselves in this late issue from their press.

Mr. Benjamin has succeeded in making a very interesting book and imparting a good deal of valuable information in his recent account of the "Atlantic Islands.'* He discusses these Islands as places of resort for the invalid as well as for the pleasure-seeker, and none are included which are subject to malaria, yellow fever, and zymotic epidemics. The volume is, in fact, a most attractive guide-book, arranged on an entirely new basis, and written in the delightful style of the thorough literary artist. Mr. Benjamin is a true poet, and the bits of descriptive writing which occur at frequent intervals in the work before us reveal his genuine love for nature, and the animal life which one finds in the forest glade. Official documents and other data have been carefully consulted, and the greatest pains have been taken with reference to the healthy character of the regions described. Invalids, sportsmen, pleasure-seekers and tourists generally will be rewarded by a perusal of Mr. Benjamin's book. It is handsomely illustrated, and the appendix is full of valuable matter, and sets forth the advantages which each Island possesses. Our own readers will find much interest, we believe, in the portions which deal directly with Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, about each locality of which a vast amount of information is very pleasantly conveyed. We quote a few

* The Atlantic Islands as resorts of Health and Pleasure. By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. New York, Harper & Brothers; Toronto, Copp, Clark & Co.

lines here to show the tasteful style of the author:

'A lovely bay is the bay of Pictou. As one enters, Prince Edward Island skirts the northern horizon, a low, pale line; nearer rises Pictou Isle, redcliffed and wood tufted. On the left is the spit lying in front of the port, sustaining a striped light-house. In the distance, gray and dreamy, a mile or two down the bay, are the spires of Pictou topping the slope of a range of hills. From the summit of these hills the traveller who climbs them is rewarded by one of the most beautiful and extensive water views on the continent the broad bay of Pictou, invading the land with many steel-hued winding arms and creeks, and studded in turn with islets; the flashing surf on the bar; the green rolling land fading in a golden haze illimitably toward the setting sun; the dark-purple Gulf of St. Lawrence spreading as illimitably toward the east, with roseate cliffs skirting the offing like phantom islands-all contribute to compose a picture inexhaustible in its variety and the satisfying character of its attractions.'

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Cape Breton is very fully described, and with equal power. The book is readable in every part, and it is in no place dull.

Mr. Longfellow's 'Poems of Places' have already reached the twenty-third volume, and in a few weeks this splendid series of the choicest poems. in the language, will be completed. Three volumes, taking up the poetry of Asia* have just been published, and Africa and America will appear at an early day. In the three attractive little books now in the hands of the public, the poet-editor has contrived to include almost every piece of good poetry that has been written on the subject. We notice but one or

* Poems of Places, Asia, in three volumes, edited by H. W. LONGFELLOW. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co.; Toronto, A. Piddington.

two omissions and these will hardly be missed inasmuch as poems on the same topics appear. A glance at the scope of this work and the wide field in which so many of our greater poets have travelled is a study by itself, and calls to mind much that is worthy of thought. Mr. Longfellow's sources .of supply appear to be inexhaustible, and as a result we have some of the richest treasures in the

realms of poesy. He has levied on the works of Landor, Thomas Moore, Lord Byron, Milton, Shakespeare, Lord Lytton, Pope, Bayard Taylor, Tasso, Bryant, Campbell, Willis, Whittier, Benjamin, Barry Cornwall, Mathew Arnold, Dr. Holmes, Sir William Jones and others of more or less note, besides drawing largely from his own writings. It was a happy idea from the first, these Poems of Places, and it has been well carried out. The books are neat and pretty. They are of convenient size, and the material of which the letter-press is composed is always high in character.

.C

Mr. John Morley, the editor of The Fortnightly Review, has undertaken the editorship of a series of .short books, so admirable in their character that we have no hesitation in cordially recommending them to everybody. The title of the series is 'English Men of Letters,' and the several gentlemen who have been engaged to furnish the letter-press are Goldwin Smith, Leslie Stephen, J. A. Froude, Wm. Black, Prof. Huxley, Principal Shairp, Mark Pattison, R. H. Hutton, the Dean of St. Paul's, and others of almost equal prominence. These books are destined to occupy a field all their own. They are copious, independent and always excellent. The volume before usthe first of the series-is Mr. Leslie Stephen's Life of Samuel Johnson, *

* English Men of Letters, edited by JOHN MORLEY: Samuel Johnson, by LESLIE STEPHEN. New York, Harper & Bros. ; Toronto, Copp Clark & Co.

and it is in the fullest sense, a delightful book. The very cream of Boswell's biography is given, as well as a number of things we do not find in this chief of biographers. Mr. Stephen is one of our greatest living critics and scholars, and his estimates of Johnson, Goldsmith, Bosell and the other literary celebrities of the last century, invest his pages with peculiar interest and liveliness. The book is full of anecdote and story and good things generally. It is suitable for every class of reader and even the man who has Boswell by heart will find a wealth of new material in Stephen which will surprise and delight him at every turn. Fifteen books are announced for inmediate publication and as these discuss many of the great names in English Literature, the reader will do well to take them as they come out. Scott and Gibbon will follow Johnson, and presently Mr. Goldwin Smith's Cowper and Wordsworth will appear.

Lovers of the Ceramic art will find in 'The China Hunters Club '* a little volume much to their taste. A large amount of curious information is given in an attractive way. The youngest member, who relates the experiences of the club, possesses a good deal of natural ability, some skill as a storyteller, and an abundance of knowledge about old China and that kind of pɔttery which, it seems, delighted our forefathers many years ago. The mania has become very fashionable, and that some of our best poets have not escaped the fever, Mr. Longfellow's Keramos' will show. Mr. W. C. Prime, whose large volume, 'Pottery and Porcelain,' is a treasure in its way, assists the youngest member by writing the introduction to her book, and Mr. Prime vouches for the truth of the statements therein recorded. The pictures are carefully executed, and the

* The China Hunters' Club. by the YOUNGEST MEMBER. New York, Harper & Brothers; Toronto, Copp, Clark & Co.

letter-press, while always interesting and amusing, is sometimes invested with a certain dry humour of its own.

One can get an admirable idea of Homer, the man and the poet, from reading Mr. Gladstone's clever brochure* on the subject. The author of Juventus Mundi has managed his material well, and in the compass of a brief booklet of some hundred and fifty pages has contrived to furnish his readers with something pertinent on almost every phase in the great Greek's career. Students and others will find this primer a genuine vade

тесит.

'Safar-Hadgi't will afford to the most inveterate novel reader a new delight. It abounds in accounts of the most terrible cruelties, which the author never fails to describe at a length which is positively disgusting. But having said this much, our objection. to the story ends. It is most graphic, most interesting and most spirited. Fiction is enriched by the introduction of at least two perfectly original portraitures, and the incident is always striking, and the descriptive portions are bold and fresh. There is a good deal of dramatic force in the book, and the glimpses we get of Arabic life and character will add largely to the world's knowledge of these peoples. The scene of this romance is laid in Samarcand, and the dramatis personce comprise Russians, Arabs, Turks, Turcomans, Persians and other Eastern peoples. A love story is deftly worked into this historical legend, and the adventures through which the leading characters pass are quite exciting and are told with great skill.

*Homer, by the Right Hon. WM. E. GLADSTONE, New York, D. Appleton & Company; Toronto, Hart & Rawlinson.

+ Safar Hadgi; or, Russ and Turcoman-Collection of foreign authors-from the French of Prince LUBOMIRSKI. New York, D. Appleton & Co.; Toronto, Hart & Rawlinson.

The Appletons are doing a particularly good work by publishing at a cheap rate some of the finest things in literature in their series of Handy Volumes.* The stories to be found in this list of books are always of great merit, while the essays and glimpses. of travel are from practised and scholarly hands. Among those on our table at this moment are two or three volumes which are worthy of more than a mere passing notice. The first comprises that brilliant bit of theatrical gossip and biography which so recently enriched the pages of Temple Bar. It is divided into eleven chapters, and much new light is thrown over the old lights of the British stage. We are told all that one cares to know about the theatrical life of Burdage, the Cibbers, Garrick, Macklin,—' the Jew that Shakespeare drew,' Peg Woffington, the Kembles, the great Siddons, Cooke, the Keans, Charles Young, Mrs. Jordan and their contemporaries. Stage reminiscences are always entertaining, and the present sketches are very delightful reading. Mr. Julian Hawthorne's clever little sketch—for it is only a sketch—of is 'Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds a very neat piece of writing, and the dramatic element is quite skilfully maintained throughout. The story is rather surprising at the finish and apt to disappoint some readers, who are unprepared for the denouement which concludes the adventure at Kohlstein. Mr. Dale's Impressions of America' are timely and clever.

THE

HE history of Chester is that of a key. It was the last city that gave up Harold's unlucky cause and surrendered to William the Conqueror, and the last that fell in the no less unlucky cause of the Stuart king against the Parliamentarians. In much earlier times it was held by the famous Twentieth Legion, the Valens Victrix, as the key of the Roman dominion in the north-west of Britain, and at present it has peculiarities of position, as well as of architecture, which make it unique in England and a lodestone to travellers. Curiously planted on the border of the newest and most bustling manufacturing district in Eng

land, close to the coalfields of North Wales, the mines of Lancashire, the quays of its sea-rival Liverpool andrthe mills of grimy, wealthy Manchestea, it still exercises, besides its artistic end historic supremacy, a bona fide ec lesiastical sway over most of these new places. It is the first ancient city accessible to American travellers, many of whom have given practical tokens of their affectionate remembrance of it by largely subscribing to the fund for the restoration of the cathedral, a work that has already cost some eighty thousand pounds.

The neighbourhood of Chester is as suggestive of antiquity and foreigners.