ditties with the old music, and "Jacob and the Raven," with
thirty-nine illustrations (Allen, 1896), the best example of his later
manner, and a book which all admirers of the more severe order of
"decorative illustration" will do well to preserve, the list is
complete. Whether a certain austerity of line has made publishers timid,
or whether the artist has declined commissions, the fact remains that
the literature of the nursery has not yet had its full share from Mr.
Heywood Sumner. Luckily, if its shelves are the less full, its walls are
gayer by the many Fitzroy pictures he has made so effectively, which
readers of THE STUDIO have seen reproduced from time to time in these
pages.

Mr. H. J. Ford's work occupies so much space in the library of a modern
child, that it seems less necessary to discuss it at length here, for he
is found either alone or co-operating with Mr. Jacomb Hood and Mr.
Lancelot Speed, in each of the nine volumes of fairy tales and true
stories (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, and the rest), edited by Mr.
Andrew Lang, and published by Longmans. More than that, at the Fine Art
Society in May 1895, Mr. Ford exhibited seventy-one original drawings,
chiefly those for the "Yellow Fairy Book," so that his work is not only
familiar to the inmates of the nursery, but to modern critics who
disdain mere printed pictures and care for nothing but autograph work.
Certainly his designs have often lost much by their great reduction, for
many of the originals were almost as large as four of these pages. His
work is full of imagination, full of detail; perhaps at times a little
overcrowded, to the extent of confusion. But children are not averse
from a picture that requires much careful inspection to reveal all its
story; and Mr. Ford's accessories all help to reiterate the main theme.
As these eight volumes have an average of 100 pictures in each, and Mr.
Ford has designed the majority, it is evident that, although his work is
almost entirely confined to one series, it takes a very prominent place
in current juvenile literature. That he must by this time have
established his position as a prime favourite with the small people goes
without saying.

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE FLAME FLOWER." BY J. F. SULLIVAN
(DENT AND CO. 1896)]

Mr. Leslie Brooke has also a long catalogue of notable work in this
class. For since Mr. Walter Crane ceased to illustrate the long series
of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, he ha