Studio: international art (18.1900)

Reviews of Recent Publications

are less extended, and a really satisfactory handbook
on these branches of the craft has yet to be written.

The Anglo-Saxon Review. Vol. II. (London
and New York : John Lane.) Price £i is.—The
contents of the second number of this remarkable
quarterly are most varied and readable. Of especial
interest are the " Letters of Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire," the present selection of which date
from 1777 to 1787. They contain some amusing
anecdotes of Sheridan and Dr. Johnson, and plen-
tiful allusions to the political troubles of the times.
Among the other papers of importance, the Earl
of Crewe's sketch of "LaBruyere," Lord Lovat's
"Abyssinian Journey," and Professor Silvanus
Thompson's "Myths of the Magnet" deserve
especial mention. Photogravure reproductions of
portraits after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Zuccaro, Van
Dyck, and other masters are interspersed throughout
the volume. The design upon the cover is repro-
duced from a volume bound by Derome.

Our Gardens. By S. Reynolds Hole. (Lon-
don : J. M. Dent & Co.)—The author of this work
is well known as an authority on garden craft, and
his contributions to the literature of this fascinating
subject deserve a place on the shelves of every
garden-lover's library. We cordially endorse his
remarks on the true beauty of " natural" garden-
ing, on his love of trees, plants and flowers for their
own sake, but we think that his admission of the
value, under limited conditions, of architectural and
formal gardening is a little too grudgingly given.
In spite of his tirade against the " barber's art,"
the well-clipped yew-hedge and the closely shaven
lawn must form to many eyes the most suitably
contrasting and beautiful of backgrounds to well-
filled beds of flowers; while the formality of the
long grass walk, the rectangular enclosure—the gar-
den within garden—the box-bordered " knots " will
still continue to exercise their charm without damage
whatever to our botanical instincts or to our love
of nature. If writers upon gardening would be
content to leave alone the exaggerated absurdities
of garden cranks, of which there are at least as
many among the votaries of " landscape" as of
" formal" gardening, and content themselves with
making better known to the public the elements of
beauty to be found in styles not only " English"
and "Italian," but also "Persian" and "Japanese,"
a great deal of printer's-ink and paper would be
economised and the world would be the richer in
many other ways.

Ivanhoe. By Sir Walter Scott. With twelve
coloured illustrations by Charles E. Brock.
(London: J. M. Dent & Co.)—This is an old and

esteemed friend in a new and beautiful, though work-
aday dress, which will be very heartily welcomed
by all lovers of Scott and especially by boys, in
whose eyes this particular romance steadily main-
tains the favour and reputation which deservedly
belong to it. Mr. Brock's illustrations, well repro-
duced in colours, are excellent in all respects and
show him to be thoroughly in sympathy with the
spirit of the period.

The Early Mountaineers. By Francis Gribble.
(London: T. Fisher Unwin.) Price 21$.—Mr.
Gribble has collated an immense amount of ex-
tremely interesting facts relating to the beginnings
of exploration in the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the
Apennines, and from these he has succeeded in
compiling a very readable book which will appeal
not only to practical mountaineers, but also to the
general reader. The volume is enriched with a
large number of illustrations reproduced, in many
cases, from old and rare prints.

The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters. By Percy
H. Bate. (London : George Bell & Sons.)—The
author of this valuable work does not confine his
attention, as might reasonably be expected, to the
little band of painters who originally associated
themselves together in the brotherhood which they
entitled the " Pre-Raphaelite," but he enters also
largely into the consideration of the work of men
who have since followed more or less in the steps
of the Brethren. The bond of union of the
brotherhood Mr. Michael Rossetti states to have
been simply : " 1. To have genuine ideas to ex-
press. 2. To study Nature attentively so as to
know how to express them. 3. To sympathise
with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in
previous art, to the exclusion of what is conven-
tional and self-parading and learned by rote; and
4. Most indispensable of all to produce thoroughly
good pictures and statues."

To such broad articles of faith the majority of
modern painters and sculptors would be willing to
subscribe, and it is necessary to look to narrower
lines to adequately express the characteristics usually
associated with the work of the brotherhood. That
" fidelity to detail" was one of the virtues of the
school is generally accepted. " Truth to nature "
is also claimed as a distinguishing feature ; but this
merit is avowed also by " Impressionists" and
others working upon divergent lines. The fact is,
that the influence of the pre-Raphaelite school lay
more in the individual power of certain of its
members than in any adherence they may have
avowed to a distinct formula of principles. If the
term " pre - Raphaelism " had not been invented

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