1871 is memorable for three of Arthur Hughes's designs, made for a projected illustrated edition of Tennyson's Loves of the Wrens, a scheme abandoned at the author's wish; the three drawings cut down from their original size, Fly Little Letter (p. 33), The Mist and the Rain (p. 113), and Sun Comes, Moon Comes (p. 183), are especially dear to collectors of Mr. Hughes's work, which appeared here with the lyrics set to Sir Arthur Sullivan's music; another by the same artist, The Mother and the Angel (p. 648), is also worth noting. One Boyd Houghton, Baraduree Justice (p. 464), twenty-one drawings by W. Small to Katharine Saunders, The High Mills, and one by the same artist to An Unfinished Song (p. 641) are in this volume, besides four by Pinwell, Aid to the Sick (p. 40), The Devil's Boots (p. 217), Toddy's Legacy (p. 336), and Shall we ever meet again? (p. 817).
Without discussing the remaining years of this still flourishing monthly one can hardly omit mention of the volume for 1878, in which William Black's Macleod of Dare is illustrated by G. H. Boughton, R.A., J. Pettie, R.A., P. Graham, R.A., W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., and John Everett Millais, R.A., a group which recalls the glories of its early issues.
LONDON SOCIETY
This popular illustrated shilling magazine, started in February 1862 under the editorship of Mr. James Hogg, has not received so far its due share of appreciation from the few who have studied the publications of the sixties. Yet its comparative neglect is easily accounted for. It contains, no doubt, much good work—some, indeed, worthy to be placed in the first rank. But it also includes a good deal that, if tolerable when the momentary fashions it depicted were not ludicrous, appears now merely commonplace and absurd. A great artist—Millais especially—could introduce the crinoline and the Dundreary whiskers, so that even to-day their ugliness does not repel you. But less accomplished draughtsmen, who followed slavishly the inelegant mode of the sixties, now stand revealed as merely journalists. Journalism, useful and honourable as its work may be, rarely has lasting qualities which bear revival. Aiming as it did to be a 'smart' and topical magazine, with the mood of the hour reflected in its pages, it remains a document not without interest to the social historian. Amid its purely ephemeral contents there are quite enough excellent drawings to ensure its preservation in any representative collection of English illustrations.
M. J. LAWLESS
'LONDON SOCIETY'
VOL. IV. p. 554
HONEYDEW
J. D. WATSON