Studio: international art (32.1904)

Reviews

and N. Macbeth—and to Mr. Staley, who is re- years hence they may be as rare and as much
sponsible for a number of articles on modern sought after as the most treasured curios of the
Frenchmen. The illustrations, that are so note- collector. Looking, moreover, at the admirable
worthy a feature of the new publication, include photographs of the weather-beaten, half-timbered,
fine photogravures after Holbein's Meier Madonna and tile-hung cottages, and the grand old farm-
from Dresden, the Portrait of Willem. van Hey- houses, granaries, and barns, it fills the heart of
thuysen, by Franz Hals, from Vienna, and The the lover of beauty and fitness with fresh regret
Gleaners, by Francois Millet, from the Louvre; and that new buildings utterly out of harmony with
amongst the hundred and seventy process blocks their environment should be arising everywhere,
are good renderings of many old favourites, as well "Local tradition," says Miss Jekyll, "is the
as of a number of little-known masterpieces in crystallisation of local need, material, and
private collections rarely accessible to the public. ingenuity " ; and all that is really needed is that
Old West Surrey. By Gertrude Jekyll. the builders of the future should respect that
(London: Longman.) 135. net.—Now that the tradition.

old landmarks are being everywhere improved Tanglewood Tales. By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
away, and no hamlet, however remote, is safe from (London : J. M. Dent.) 35-. 6d. net.—The fine
the intrusion of the motor car; whilst the unifor- coloured plates after the drawings of H. Granville
mity of compulsory education is crushing out, with Fell, whose clever illustrations of the "Book of
its levelling influence, all individuality of character, Job," "Wonder Stories from Herodotus," and
it is indeed delightful and refreshing to turn over " Aucassin and Nicollette" are so much appre-
the pages of Miss Jekyll's charmingly written book, ciated, will add a fresh value to the American
pretty well every page of which has its illustration author's well-known interpretations of old Greek
of some picturesque old home or some typical sur- myths. They have caught the spirit of the
vival of days gone by. The authoress, who at one originals with considerable felicity, but some of
time intended to make painting her profession, has the pictures are rather too large for their setting,
the trained eye of the artist, as well as the eloquent The Tree Book. By Mary Rowles Jarvis.
pen of the ready writer.
She knows and loves every
inch of the district she calls
old West Surrey, bounded
on the north by the long
chalk line of the Hog's
Back, and on the south by
the Weald of Sussex.
Though she explains that
her book "lays no claim
to being a comprehensive
description of people or
objects, for it consists only
of the recollections of one
individual," it is just those
personal reminiscences,
bearing as they do the un-
mistakable impress of
truth, that are of such
priceless value to a student
of the past. The hasty
critic might, perhaps, think
it almost absurd to give
photographs of such
homely and familiar objects
as a sewage-pump, a five-
barred gate, or a pocket-
lantern ; but a hundred first prize (comp. a lx)
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