as better moments, and those who sympathise
with the Duke of Westminster's efforts to provide open spaces for the
people, will no doubt join in the aspiration--

God bless wise Grosvenors whose hearts incline,
Workmen to fete, and grateful souls refine;

though they may regret that so noble a sentiment is expressed in so
inadequate a form.

It is difficult to understand why Mr. Cyrus Thornton should have called
his volume Voices of the Street. However, poets have a perfect right to
christen their own children, and if the wine is good no one should
quarrel with the bush. Mr. Thornton's verse is often graceful and
melodious, and some of his lines, such as--

And the wise old Roman bondsman saw no terror in the dead--
Children when the play was over, going softly home to bed,

have a pleasant Tennysonian ring. The Ballad of the Old Year is rather
depressing. 'Bury the Old Year Solemnly' has been said far too often,
and the sentiment is suitable only for Christmas crackers. The best
thing in the book is The Poet's Vision of Death, which is quite above the
average.

Mrs. Dobell informs us that she has already published sixteen volumes of
poetry and that she intends to publish two more. The volume that now
lies before us is entitled In the Watches of the Night, most of the poems
that it contains having been composed 'in the neighbourhood of the sea,
between the hours of ten and two o'clock.' Judging from the following
extract we cannot say that we consider this a very favourable time for
inspiration, at any rate in the case of Mrs. Dobell:

Were Anthony Trollope and George Eliot
Alive--which unfortunately they are not--
As regards the subject of 'quack-snubbing,' you know,
To support me I am sure they hadn't been slow--
For they, too, hated the wretched parasite
That fattens on the freshest, the most bright
Of the blossoms springing from the--Public Press!--
And that oft are flowers that even our quacks should bless!

(1) Poor Folks' Lives. By the Rev. Frederick Langbridge. (Simpkin,
Marshall and Co.)

(2) Pictures in the Fire. By George Dalziel. (Privately Printed.)

(3) Women Must Weep. By Professor F. Harald Williams. (Swan
Sonnenschein and Co.)

(4) Joseph and His Brethren: a Trilogy. By Alexander Buchan. (Digby and
Long.)

(5) God's Garden. By Heartsease. (James Nisbet and Co.)

(6) Voices of the Street. By Cyrus Thornton. (Elliot Stock.)

(7) In