He is a man of many parts: poet, painter, draughtsman, and naturalist; and how much that word "naturalist" means in the knowledge that fitted him for the varied branches of art which he encompassed in his numerous works! Not the least amongst them being the many children's books he created.
One of the most beautiful books ever entrusted to our care, in which the pictures were to be by various artists, was the "Poems of William Wordsworth." We feel, when looking at the book now, after a lapse of forty years, how happy we were in having the co-operation of such very suitable artists as Birket Foster, Sir John Gilbert, and Joseph Wolf.
"There, I think, on that lonely grave
Violets spring, in the soft May shower,
There, in the Summer breezes, wave
Crimson phlox and narcissus flower.
"There the turtles alight, and there
Feeds with her fawn the timid doe;
There, when the Winter woods are bare,
Walks the wolf on the crackling snow."
"The Maiden's Sorrow."—W. Cullen Bryant.
By Harrison Weir.
Published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., New York.