e "forties." One of
the full pages, which appear to be lithographs, is clearly signed. He
also illustrated the adventures of "Master Tyll Owlglass," an edition of
"Baron Munchausen," "Picture Fables," "The Careless Chicken," "Funny
Leaves for the Younger Branches," "Laugh and Grow Thin," and a host of
other volumes. Yet the pictures in these, amusing as they are in their
way, do not seem likely to attract an audience again at any future time.

E. V. B., initials which stand for the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, are found on
many volumes of the past twenty-five years which have enjoyed a special
reputation. Certainly her drawings, if at times showing much of the
amateur, have also a curious "quality," which accounts for the very high
praise they have won from critics of some standing. "The Story without
an End," "Child's Play" (1858), "The New Child's Play," "The Magic
Valley," "Andersen Fairy Tales" (Low, 1882), "Beauty and the Beast" (a
quarto with colour-prints by Leighton Bros.), are the most important.
Looking at them dispassionately now, there is yet a trace of some of the
charm that provoked applause a little more than they deserve.

In British art this curious fascination exerted by the amateur is always
confronting us. The work of E. V. B. has great qualities, yet any pupil
of a board school would draw better. Nevertheless it pleases more than
academic technique of high merit that lacks just that one quality which,
for want of a better word, we call "culture." In the designs by Louisa,
Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely
faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch
of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must
accompany it to produce work of lasting value.

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING
BELL (DENT AND CO.)]

Mr. H. S. Marks designed two nursery books for Messrs. Routledge, and
contributed to many others, including J. W. Elliott's "National Nursery
Rhymes" (Novello), whence our illustration has been taken. Two series of
picture books containing mediaeval figures with gold background, by J.
Moyr Smith, if somewhat lacking in the qualities which appeal to
children, may have played a good part in educating them to admire
conventional flat treatment, with a decorative purpose that was unusual
in the "seventies," when most of them appeared.

In later years, Miss Alice Havers in "The White Swans," and "Cape Tow