unscholarise himself, can speak of him as the
_O'Biter_, so sharp and pungent are some of his remarks. Ah! here is
something on LAMB. For me, quoth the Baron, LAMB is always in season,
serve up the dish with what trimmings you may, but, if you please, no
sauce. Size and shape are the only things against friend _Obiter_.
It is not what this sort of book ought to be, portable and potable,
like the craftily qualified contents of a pocket-flask, refreshing on
a tedious journey. Had _Obiter_ been the size of either _The Handy
Volume Shakspeare_, or of Messrs. ROUTLEDGE'S Redbacks--both the
Baron's prime favourites--the Baron would have been able to dip
into it more frequently, as he would into that same pocket-flask
aforementioned.

"Next, please!" BLACKIE'S _Modern Cyclopedia_. Vol. VII., so we're
getting along. I'll just cast my eye over it; one eye, not two, says
the Baron, out of compliment to the Cyclops. This Volume deals with
the letters "P," "R," "S," and any person wishing to master a few
really interesting subjects for dinner conversation will read and
learn up all about Procyon, Pizemysi, and Pyrheliometer, Quotelet,
Quintal, and Quito, Regulus, Ramazan, Rheumatism, Rhynchops,
Rum-Shrub, and Rupar, Samoyedes, Semiquaver, Sahjehanpur, Silket,
Sinter, and Size. When it is known what a gay conversationalist he is,
he may induce some one to put him up for a cheery Club, where he will
be Blackie-balled. Still, by studying the Cyclopedia carefully, with a
view to being ready with words for charades and dumb-crambo during the
festive Christmas-tide, he may once again achieve a certain amount of
popularity, on which, as on fresh laurels, he had better retire.

"Next, please!" _How Stanley Wrote his Darkest Africa_. By Mr. E.
MARSTON. A most interesting little book, published by SAMPSON LOW
& Co., illustrated with excellent photographs, and with a couple of
light easy sketches, by, I suppose, the Author, which makes the Baron
regret that he didn't do more of them. "Buy it," says the Baron.
The Baron recommends the perusal of this little book, if only to
understand the full meaning of the old proverbial expression "Going on
a wild-goose chase." The author is a wonderfully rapid-act traveller.
He apparently can "run" round every principal city in Europe and see
everything that's worth seeing in it in about an hour and a half at
most. In this manner, and by not comprehending a word of the language
wherever he is, or at all