No matter how familiar it may be, it is simply
impossible to avoid laughing anew at the smug little Harry, the
sanctimonious tutor, or the naughty Tommy, as Mr. Sambourne has realised
them. The "Anecdotes of the Crocodile" and "The Presumptuous Dentist"
are no less good. The way he has turned a prosaic hat-rack into an
instrument of torture would alone mark Mr. Sambourne as a comic
draughtsman of the highest type. Nothing he has done in political
cartoons seems so likely to live as these burlesques. A little known
book, "The Royal Umbrella" (1888), which contains the delightful "Cat
Gardeners" here reproduced, and the very well-known edition of Charles
Kingsley's "Water Babies" (1886), are two other volumes which well
display his moods of less unrestrained humour. "The Real Robinson
Crusoe" (1893) and Lord Brabourne's (Knatchbull-Hugessen's) "Friends and
Foes of Fairyland" (1886), well-nigh exhaust the list of his efforts in
this direction.

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES" BY C. M. GERE
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1893)]

[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON No. 1. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY A.
NOBODY]

Prince of all foreign illustrators for babyland is M. Boutet de Monvel,
whose works deserve an exhaustive monograph. Although comparatively few
of his books are really well known in England, "Little Folks" contains a
goodly number of his designs. La Fontaine's "Fables" (an English edition
of which is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
is (so far as I have discovered) the only important volume reprinted
with English text. Possibly his "Jeanne d'Arc" ought not to be named
among children's books, yet the exquisite drawing of its children and
the unique splendour the artist has imparted to simple colour-printing,
endear it to little ones no less than adults. But it would be absurd to
suppose that readers of THE STUDIO do not know this masterpiece of its
class, a book no artistic household can possibly afford to be
without. Earlier books by M. de Monvel, which show him in his most
engaging mood (the mood in the illustration from "Little Folks" here
reproduced), are "Vieilles Chansons et Rondes," by Ch. M. Widor, "La
Civilite Puerile et Honnete," and "Chansons de France pour les Petits
Francais." Despite their entirely different characterisation of the
child, and a much stronger grasp of the principles of decorative
composition, these delightful designs are more nearly akin to those