Any who read the first series of Eighteenth Century Vignettes, by Austin Dobson, will eagerly welcome a second series issued by the same publishers, Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Of all writers at work to-day, Mr. Austin Dobson is most profoundly steeped in the literary essence of the Eighteenth Century, and is most successful in reproducing its flavour. In writing about Swift, Richardson, Dr. Johnson, or the topography of Humphrey Clinker (a learned, yet most mellow disquisition), he does not condescend to the easily-acquired trick of introducing archaic words, or inverting sections of phrases with which we are familiar in the works of some other artists on the same broad pavement. Yet, withal, there is in the literary style of these pleasant chats round about the old writers, booksellers and bookbuyers, a certain distinct Eighteenth Century flavour. So intimate is Mr. Dobson with the ways, the personal appearance, the dress, the daily environment, and the little gestures of the more or less mighty dead, that he is able to recall them to startlingly vivid life. His picture of Swift writing to Stella from his bed in the back room of a first floor in Bury Street, St. James's, is a masterpiece of live portraiture.
The Baron De Book-Worms.
A SNUB.
Hypatia Roland (to the Brown's Parlourmaid). "Call me a Hansom, please."
Cadby. "I'm going your way, Miss Roland. We might go together."
Miss Roland. "Two Hansoms, please!"