This digression, provoked by the four delightful 'Small' drawings, must not lead one to overlook the rest of the pictures in Good Words for 1866. They include The Island Church, by J. W. North (p. 393), The Life-Boat, by J. W. Lawson (p. 248), Between the Showers, by W. J. Linton, (p. 424), six illustrations to Ruth Thornbury, by M. E. Edwards, and one by G. J. Pinwell, Bridget Dally's Change. Perhaps the most notable of the year are the five still to be named: A. Boyd Houghton's The Voyage, and a set of four half-page drawings, Reaping, Binding, Carrying, Gleaning, entitled The Harvest (pp. 600, 601). These have a decorative arrangement not always present in the work of this clever artist, and a peculiarly large method of treatment, so much so that if the text informed you that they were pen-sketches from life-size paintings, you would not be surprised. Whether by accident or design, it is curious to discover that the landscapes in each pair, set as they are on pages facing one another, have a look of being carried across the book in Japanese fashion.

1867 might be called the Pinwell year, as a dozen of his illustrations to Dr. George Mac Donald's Guild Court, and one each to A Bird in the Hand and The Cabin Boy, account for nearly half the original drawings in the volume. W. Small is seen in five characteristic designs to Dr. Macleod's The Starling, and one each to Beside the Stile (p. 645) and The Highland Student (p. 663). Arthur Boyd Houghton contributes Omar and the Persian (p. 104) and Making Poetry (p. 248); the first a typical example of his oriental manner, the latter one of his home scenes. S. L. Fildes appears with In the Choir (p. 537), a church interior showing the influence of William Small. F. W. Lawson illustrates Grace's Fortune with three drawings, also redolent of Small, and Fred Walker has Waiting in the Dusk, a picture of a girl in a passage, which does not illustrate the accompanying verses, and has the air of being a picture prepared for a serial some time before, that, having been delayed for some reason, has been served up with a poem that chanced to be in type.

In 1868 Pinwell and Houghton between them are responsible for quite half the separate plates, and Small contributes no less than thirty-four which illustrate delightfully The Woman's Kingdom, a novel by the author of John Halifax, together with a large number of vignetted initials, a feature not before introduced into this magazine. Without forgetting the many admirable examples of Mr. Small's power to sustain the interest of the reader throughout a whole set of illustrations to a work of fiction, one doubts if he has ever surpassed the excellence of these. The little sketches of figures and landscapes in the initials show that he did not consider it beneath his dignity to study the text thoroughly, so as to interpret it with dramatic insight. Your modern chic draughtsman, who reads hastily the few lines underscored in blue pencil by his editor, must laugh at the pains taken by the older men. Indeed, a very up-to-date illustrator will not merely refuse to carry out the author's idea, but prefer his own conception of the character, and say so. That neither course in itself produces great work may be granted, but one cannot avoid the conclusion that if it be best to illustrate a novel (which is by no means certain) that artist is most worthy of praise who does his utmost to present the characters invented by the author. True, that character-drawing with pen and pencil is out of date,—subtle emotion has taken its place,—it is not easy to make a picture of a person smiling outwardly, but inwardly convulsed with conflicting desires; the smile you may get, but the conflicting desires are hard to work in at the same time. Appreciation of Mr. Small's design need not imply censure of the work of others; but, all the same, the cheap half-tone from a wash-drawing, in the current sixpenny magazine, looks a very feeble thing after an hour devoted to the illustrations to Guy Waterman's Maze, The Woman's Kingdom, Griffith Gaunt, and the rest of the serials he illustrated. In this volume two others, The Harvest Home (p. 489) and A Love Letter (p. 618), are also from the same facile hand.

The first of the Boyd Houghtons is a striking design to Tennyson's poem of The Victim (p. 18); neither picture nor poem shows its author at his best. Others signed A. B. H. are: The Church in the Cevennes (pp. 56, 57), Discipleship (p. 112), The Pope and the Cardinals (p. 305), The Gold Bridge (p. 321), The Two Coats (p. 432), How it all happened (seven illustrations), Dance my Children (p. 568), a typical example of the peculiar mannerism of its author, and a Russian Farmyard (p. 760); also a number of small designs to Russian Fables, some of which were illustrated also by Zwecker. G. J. Pinwell illustrates Notes on the Fire (pp. 47, 49), Much work for Little Pay (p. 89), A Paris Pawn-shop (p. 233), Mrs. Dubosq's Daughter (four pictures), Una and the Lion (p. 361), Lovely, yet unloved (pp. 376, 377), Hop Gathering (p. 424), The Quakers in Norway (p. 504). S. L. Fildes has The Captain's Story, a good study of fire-light reflected on three seated figures. Other numbers worth noting are an excellent example of J. Mahoney, Yesterday and To-day (p. 672), Briton Rivière's At the Window (p. 630), R. Buckman's The White Umbrella (p. 473), and seven by Francis Walker to Hero Harold, and one each to Glenalla (p. 384), The Bracelet (p. 753), and Thieves' Quarter (p. 553).

With 1869 we lose sight of many of the men who did so much to sustain the artistic reputation of this magazine. W. Small has but one drawing, The Old Manor-House (p. 849). Hubert Herkomer is represented by The Way to Machaerus (pp. 353, 497). J. Mahoney by five designs to The Staffordshire Potter, Francis Walker by nine to The Connaught Potters and A Burial at Machaerus and Holyhead Breakwater. Arthur Hughes, an infrequent contributor so far, contributes two illustrations to Carmina Nuptialia. F. Barnard has two to House-hunting; F. A. Fraser has no less than seventy-five: thirty-five to Debenham's Vow, and thirty-three to Noblesse Oblige, with seven others, none of them worth reconsideration, although they served their purpose no doubt at the time.

With 1870 we reach the limit of the present chronicle, to which Francis Walker and F. A. Fraser contribute most of the pictures. The most interesting are: Arthur Hughes's Fancy (p. 777) and The Mariner's Cave (p. 865); J. D. Linton, Married Lovers (p. 601); J. Mahoney, The Dorsetshire Hind (p. 21), Ascent of Snowdon (p. 201); and Dame Martha's Well (p. 680), and G. J. Pinwell's three very representative drawings, Rajah playing Chess (p. 211), Margaret in the Xebec (p. 280), and A Winter Song (p. 321).

ARTHUR HUGHES

'GOOD WORDS'
1870, p. 777

FANCY