... London, May 8th, 1901. Those of us who have spent many years in collecting libraries-- and we are all haunted by the thought that these libraries will be distributed some day through the agency of Mr. Sotheby or another-- have grateful feelings towards Mr. John Nimmo for the many hand some quartos with which he has ornamented our shelves. Who would be without his Captain Gronow, his ...

... London, May 15th, 1901. Many of us felt a pang when a famous rock im mortalised by Wordsworth disappeared on the banks of Lake Thirlmere owing to the requirements of the scheme for providing Manchester with water. Birmingham is now responsible for a much more marked piece of what one may almost call literary vandalism, for Cwm Elan, the house associated with Shelley, is to be submerged by the ...

... London, Tune 5th 1901. It is now some three weeks ago since the death was recorded of W. V., the daughter of Mr. William Canton, the literary adviser to the firm of Isbister. Mr. Canton's works are as follows:-- A Lost Epic, and Other Poems. The Invisible Playmate: a Story of the Unseen. W. V., Her Book, and Various Verses. T he Invisible Playmate and W. V., Her Book, were printed in one ...

... London, June 1 2th, igoi. It seems to me that we are on the eve of a great revival of Charles Dickens. By this I do not in the least mean that Dickens's works have not been selling in their thousands and hundreds of thousands during the past ten years. I know that they have; the evidence of many publishers and many booksellers is quite clear on this point. None the less is it certain that ...

... London, June 26th, 1901. Surely it is just to describe the Taller as the most persistent of all newspapers. It first appeared on April 12, 1709, and it finished on January 2, 1711. There were only 271 numbers altogether. It appeared three times a week. For the whole set of 271 numbers enormous prices have been given, in one case over £2, 000 was paid, while ,£200 has been paid for a single ...

... London, July ioth, iqoi. Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, the poet and essayist from Boston, Massachusetts, is now residing in Oxford, where she is engaged in research at the Bodleian for the benefit of her very elaborate edition of Vaughan's poems. Miss Guiney has a considerable band of admirers on this side of the Atlantic, where her poems, England and Yesterday, have been published by Mr Grant ...

... London, July 17th, 1901. It has been my privilege to spend a week-end at Lich field in the company of my brother members of the Johnson Club. I have visited Johnson's birthplace once before in the company of that interesting brother hood, but this later visit had a very peculiar interest for all of us because with it was associated the dedication of the house in which Dr. Johnson was born to ...

... London, July 24th, 1901. A recent bout of novel reading in which 1 have indulged has included the following stories Alice of Old Vincennes. By Maurice Thompson. (Bowen- Merrill.) Mrs. Green. By Evelyne Elsye Rynd. (John Hurray.) London Only. By W. Pett Ridge. (H odder Stuughton.) A Woman Alone. By Mrs. W. K. Clifford. Methuen Fiander's Widow. By M. E. Francis. (Longmans.) Mr. William Bobbs, ...

... London, July 31st, 1901. It is exceedingly sad that Mr. Austin Dobson's retirement from the Board of Trade should be followed well nigh simultaneously by the death of Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse. The presence of Mr. Dobson, Mr. Edmund Gosse, and Mr. Monkhouse in that office has led to more than one reference to a nest of singing birds. Mr. Monkhouse possessed great personal charm, and he will be ...

... London, August 7th, iqoi. Many of my readers have at one time or another in their lives visited Anne Hathaway's cottage at Shottery near Stratford-on-Avon, and few but have felt, as I have, that it is almost the one genuine glimpse of the England of Shakspere that one may arrive at in Shakspere's land. Now that so much has been done to spoil the church and that Stratford itself has been in so ...

... A LITERARY LETTER Five Interesting Novels. London, August 21st, 1901. The Victorian era of literature produced good poetry, good history, good biography, and good fiction. Will the era of the Seventh Edward produce only good fiction? It is more than possible. How good much of that fiction is is brought home to one who takes a batch of novels into the country for a week's recreation My holiday ...

... London, August 28th, 1901. Mr. John Bronte of Belfast sends me the following hitherto unpublished letters by the Rev. Patrick Bronte, the father of the three famous children, written to his brother and sister. So little has been published con cerning Mr. Bronte's intercourse with his Irish relatives that these letters make interesting reading to some of us. As one of the ultra-Protestants of ...