but, to the last, retained a personal popularity that amounted to a national affection. It was not uncritical; it was half-humorous and by no means blind to his foibles. But, expressed as it was

The Outlook.

in the household words "King Dick," it brought him in an allegiance that never wavered and only strengthened continuously to the end.

Ersul.

of... teems with landscapes which, by a mere accident of iteration, might have been numbered among the scenic celebrities of the day."

So wrote Mr. Hardy in his preface to Vol. VII. of the Wesser Novels, dated August, 1895. If the country to which he referred still enjoys any of the advantages or disadvantages of scenic obscurity, it is not for any lack of "iteration" since the day when these words were written. Indeed, the process of advertisement had already at that time made some way. Mr. Hardy was already at the head of the front rank of contemporary novelists. Books about his books-or, at least, the first of such, by a writer of some distinction -had already made their appearance. And it is only in the nature of things that the fame of the country about which he writes should have grown commensurately with the popularity of his novels. A map published at the end of each volume of his collected works, enabling his readers without difficulty to identify the scenes of his fiction with their originals, no doubt

"Wessex": painted by Walter Tyndale: described by Clive Holland. London: A. C. Black, 1906. 20s. net. "Three Dorset Captains

contributed to this result. Since then the "Hardy country" has been "written up" in all manner of publications of the daily, weekly, and periodical order, illustrated and otherwise. The highways and byways of Wessex have been carried on the wings of the post to the four corners of the British Isles and to the Anglo-Saxon reading public overseas in innumerable picture-postcards. And the book now under review, by Walter Tyndale and Clive Holland, is only a further addition to the literature of the subject that has already appeared in book-form.

Some of us may regret these consequences of Mr. Hardy's work. It may be that birth or other chance of association has assigned to us for our own particular corner of the earth some one of the scenic lions of the land, so that we know something of the price that is paid for notoriety. So far as our concern is on behalf of the country itself and its natives, it is, no doubt, misplaced. Wessex has been a mark for the invader ever since it can remember, and an invasion of tourists bringing with them money to the pocket of its inhabitants and variety, amenity and mild sensation to the social side of its life, may be reckoned an agreeable substitute for the inroads of Romans, English, Danes, and Normans, not to mention Monmouths and the more dreadful sequel to a Monmouth rising. It is not the professional dweller upon the

at Trafalgar." By A. M. Broadley and E. C. Bartelot M. P. London: John Murray, 1906. 15s. net.

land who objects to tourists and publicity. His sound stomach is proof against the vulgarity which they involve. It is the sentimental amateur. rooted to the soil only by the delicate feelers of a more or less artificial association, who feels the breath of intrusion like a blight and is sickened by the easy familiarity with which the literary caterer retails the scenic intimacies of a country side.

The individuals of this class who happen to be connected with any particular corner of the country are of course not numerous, and certainly need not be considered, but there are many who sympathize with their conservatism. Few of us have not somewhere at the root of our nature some exclusive propensity which causes us to take pleasure in the existence of things that are enjoyed by the few, to rejoice in the unexploited. We like to think that there are still troutstreams accessible to the public but unvisited by the readers of the Field in general; restaurants in shy streets where the prices have not yet been spoiled by the rich, nor the quality of the wines and cookery by the many; old china still on the shelves of dressers not yet transferred from the farmhouse to the furniture shop or museum; Old English songs not yet set to accompaniments by Mr. Fuller Maitland; Old English ale not yet tasted and described by the professional Borrovian, etc., etc. Even if we are not fortunate enough to possess the secret of any of these good things, a sort of vicarious selfishness makes us enjoy the thought that they exist in privacy. And so we like to contemplate those portions of the map of our country which may still be marked with the gray shading that indicates scenic obscurity, and are conscious of a certain regret whenever a new area is picked out in purple by the pen of some popular author.

Little exception need be taken, on any of the grounds that have been mentioned, to the book under review. Mr. Tyndale's illustrations may be taken to be the raison d'être of the work, seventy-five sketches of town and country, reproduced by the three-color process, very bright and pretty, pleasing to the eye, and suggestive to the imagination. The letterpress by Mr. Holland is full of information. R. L. Stevenson says that no human being ever spoke of scenery for more than two minutes, and concludes that we hear too much of it in literature. The inference is doubtful, but the warning is, perhaps, a useful one, and Mr. Holland is evidently alive to the danger in question. His book contains a chapter on "The Four Seasons of Wessex," which might probably have been omitted for the above reason, but, except for this chapter, and one entitled "A Famous Fair and Some Wessex Types," he has refrained from writing of the "creative" order. The last chapter gives a very comprehensive index to the scenes of Mr. Hardy's novels, connecting them with their originals, and is illustrated by the map at the end of the book. Otherwise the book consists of a perfectly straightforward historical and descriptive account of the principal towns of Wessex.

Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar is a book which may be alluded to not inappropriately under this head, inasmuch as these naval heroes, and the times with which they are associated figure no less prominently in the MidWessex of Mr. Hardy's creation than in the actual annals of the county of Dorset. The part played at Trafalgar by Captains Hardy, Bullen, and Digby was celebrated at Dorchester last year by a Nelson and Trafalgar exhibition, at which these three names shared the honors with the greater name which is claimed by the Eastern Counties. The book, besides being the first life of Cap

the MSS. of "Marmion" and of "Waverley"; autographs of James V. of Scotland, Mary of Lorraine, Mary, Queen of Scots, James VI., and Queen Elizabeth; the Scots Covenants of 1580 and 1638; a Mazarin Bible; and the volume containing the Library's unique set of the earliest productions of the press of Chepman and Myllar, the first Scottish printers.

A somewhat unusual periodical is about to make its appearance at Madras under the title of Gossip. It claims to be devoted to the interests of the Indian sepoy, and the prospectus states that, while all other classes of the Indian community have organs to ventilate their opinions and call attention to their grievances, the native soldier has no such mouthpiece. The attitude of the military authorities in India towards this publication must arouse some curiosity, more especially as Gossip proclaims its intention to become an Indian Truth.

A selected edition of the poems of the late Mrs. Nora Chesson is in preparation, and will be published almost immediately by Mr. Alston Rivers. Mrs. Chesson, better known as Nora Hopper, left a young family almost entirely unprovided for; and the proceeds of this publication, to which Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer contributes an introduction, will be devoted to the fund now being raised for their benefit. Mr. Hueffer (90 Brook Green, W.) would be glad to

Mr. Arthur Symons figures conspicuously in the autumn announcements of the London publishers. One house is to publish his collected "Poems" in two volumes, and a new volume "The Fool of the World and Other Poems": and another is to bring out a volume named "Studies in Seven Arts" which has been in preparation for many years, and will contain essays on Rodin, Whistler, Watts, Moreau, Wagner, Strauss, Duse, and other typically modern artists. Mr. Symons has in preparation for the same publishers a book on William Blake, which will contain a complete study of the man, the poet, and the painter, together with various unpublished and little-known documents giving contemporary accounts of Blake. Among these will be a transcript of all the references to Blake in the Diary, Reminiscences, and Letters of Crabb Robinson, made for the first time from the original manuscript, which has never been printed in full.

Among the books announced by E. P. Dutton & Co. for immediate publication are "A Child's Recollections of Tennyson," by Edith Nicholl Ellison; "Court Life in the Dutch Republic, 1638-1689," by the Baroness Suzette Van Zalen Van Nyvelt; "Sigismonde Malatesta," by Edward Hutton; "The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville," a new English

version by Ethel Wedgwood; "Garden Graith, or Talks Among My Flowers" (a tenth edition), by Sarah F. Smiley; "A Benedick in Arcady," by Halliwell Sutcliffe; "Dearlove: The History of Her Summer's Make-Believe," by Frances Campbell; "Truth and Falsehood in Religion," by William Ralph Inge, M.A., D.D.; "Saint Bernardine of Sienna," by Paul Thureau-Dangin; "Joseph Priestly," by T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., in English Men of Science Series; and "Trinity College, Cambridge," by W. W. Rouse Ball, in the College Monographs Series; "The Shores of the Adriatic," the Italian side: Architectural and Archæological," by F. Hamilton Jackson, R.B.A.

Lovers of sonnets will welcome the announcement of a new anthology of English sonnets, which is to be published by Mr. S. Wellwood of 34 Strand, as the first of a number of finely produced volumes, called the "Wellwood Books." Each book will have its own format. The printing is by the Chiswick Press in an exclusive type designed after Froben, an early Basle printer, and the paper is Van Gelder hand-made. The anthology will range from Wyatt and Surrey to poets of the present day, and will contain many copyright pieces which have not previously appeared in any collection. Among the living poets represented are: Mr. A. C. Benson, Mr. Hilaire Belloc, Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, Mr. Robert Bridges, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. Andrew Lang, Mrs. Meynell, Mr. Swinburne, Mr. William Watson, Mr. Watts-Dunton, and others. The edition is limited to five hundred and thirty-five copies on paper at 12s. 6d. net, and ten copies on Japanese vellum at £2 2s net. After printing the type will be distributed.