All who love the shady side of Pall Mall, and agree with Dr. Johnson
that the tide of human enjoyment flows higher at Charing Cross than in
any other part of the globe, will gladly welcome Mr. Jesse's recently
published volumes entitled _London and its Celebrities_. They are
pleasant, gossiping and suggestive, and as the reader turns over page
after page of the historical recollections and personal anecdotes which
are associated with the various localities described by Mr. Jesse, he
will doubtless be well content to trust the accuracy of a guide whom he
finds so fluent and so intelligent, and approve rather than lament the
absence of those references to original authorities which are looked for
in graver histories. The work is written after the style of Saint Foix'
_Rues de Paris_, which Walpole once intended to imitate; and is executed
with a tact which will no doubt render it very acceptable to those for
whom it has been written, namely those persons whose avocations of
business or pleasure lead them to traverse the thoroughfares of the
great metropolis; and to whom it points out in a manner which we have
correctly designated gossiping, pleasant, and suggestive, "such sites
and edifices as have been rendered classical by the romantic or literary
associations of past times."
Messrs. Williams and Norgate have forwarded to us a Catalog of an
extensive Collection of Books, the property of a distinguished
physician, which are to be sold by auction in Berlin on the 21st of
October. The library, which was forty years in forming, is remarkable
for containing, besides numerous rare works in Spanish, Italian, French,
and English Literature, a curious series of works connected with the
American aborigines; and a most extensive collection of works on the
subjects of Prison Discipline, Poor Laws, and those other great social
questions which are now exciting such universal attention.
We have received the following Catalogues: J. Miller's (43. Chandos
Street, Trafalgar Square) Catalogue No. 11, for 1850 of Books Old and
New, including a large Number of scarce and curious Works on Ireland,
its Antiquities, Topography, and History; W. Heath's (29-1/2. Lincoln's
Inn Fields) Catalogue No. 5. for 1850 of Valuable Second-hand Books in
all Departments of Literature.
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