"_Days with Sir Roger de Coverley!_" exclaimed the Baron, on seeing
the charming little book brought out at this season by Messrs.
MACMILLAN. "Delightful! Immortal! Ever fresh! Welcome, with or without
illustration; some of Mr. THOMSON's would not be missed."
There is a breezy, frank, boyish air about the "Reminiscences" of
our great Baritone, CHARLES SANTLEY, which is as a tonic--a tonic
sol-fa--to the reader a-weary of the many Reminiscences of these
latter days. SANTLEY, who seems to have made his way by stolid pluck,
and without very much luck, may be considered as the musical _Mark
Tapley_, ready to look always on the sunny side. With a few rare
exceptions, he appears to have taken life very easily.
Muchly doth the Baron like Mr. HALL CAINE's story of _Captain Davy's
Honeymoon_, only, short as it is, with greater effect it might have
been shorter.
The Baron, being in a reading humour, tried _The Veiled Hand_, by
FREDERICK WICKS, a name awkward for anyone unable to manage his "r's."
What Fwedewickwicks' idea of _A Veiled Hand_ is, the Baron has tried
to ascertain, but without avail. Why not a Gloved Hand? Hands do not
wear veils, any more than our old friends, the Hollow Hearts, wear
masks. Hands take "vails," but "that is another story." However, _The
Veiled Hand_ induced sleep, so the Baron extinguished both candles and
Wicks at the same time, and slumbered.
I have also had time to read _An Exquisite Fool_, published by OSGOOD.
MCILVAINE & CO., and written by Nobody, Nobody's name being
mentioned as being the author. It begins well, but it is an old,
old tale--BLANCHE AMORY and the Chevalier, and so forth--and as _Sir
Charles Coldstream_ observed, when he looked down the crater of Mount
Vesuvius, "There's nothing in it."
Most interesting is a short paper on "The Green Room of the Comédie
Française," in the _English Illustrated Magazine_ for this month,
pleasantly written by Mr. FREDERICK HAWKINS,--HAWKINS with an
aspirate, not "'ENERY 'AWKINS" at present associated with "A
CHEVALIER" in London. Mr. HAWKINS tells many amusing anecdotes, and
gives a capital sketch of M. RENÉ MOLÉ. But the article would be
damaged by extracts. Therefore, "_Tolle, lege_," says yours and
everybody's, very truly,