SOME NEW BOOKS.
A finely-printed volume comes to us from America. It is from the pen of Mr James Grant-Wilson, known in this country as the author of Poets and Poetry of Scotland. His new volume consists of clever and agreeably written sketches of Bryant and His Friends, including among the number such well-known names as those of Washington Irving, Richard Henry Dana, Fenimore Cooper, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Edgar Allan Poe, and others. The book is illustrated with portraits and fac-similes of handwriting.
Dickensiana, a compilation by Mr Fred. G. Kitton (London: George Redway), will have an interest for the lovers of Dickens and his works. It consists of a bibliography of the literature relating to Dickens and his writings, with extracts from the reviews of his works at the time they appeared, some of which criticisms are curious from the very opposite opinions occasionally expressed. The compilation of the book appears to have been carefully gone about.
Aberdour and Inchcolme (Edinburgh: David Douglas) is an interesting local history by the Rev. William Ross, LL.D. It contains notices of the parish and of the ancient monastery founded on Inchcolme by Alexander I. Many of the details collected from the seventeenth century records are of great interest to historical students; though the book would, we think, have been improved had the more ancient history been greatly condensed, as much of it has only the faintest connection with the immediate subject. As a whole, however, the volume is a valuable contribution to our local histories.
Vice in the Horse (same publisher) is by Mr Edward L. Anderson, and consists of various papers on vice in the horse, on the value of books on riding, on the intelligence of the horse, on the test of horsemanship, on how to buy a horse, and the like. The book will interest the class to which it appeals.