Studio: international art (32.1904)

Reviews

English home, dividing his subject into five periods:
the Pre-Norman, Norman, early Gothic, late Gothic,
and Modern. Every section of this remarkable publi-
cation is richly illustrated with typical examples of
still - existing buildings. In the Norman, for
instance, are good representations of the Halls at
Penshurst and Igtham as well as of the Kitchen of
Glastonbury Abbey ; in the chapter on Elizabethan
architecture appear Aston and Astley Halls ; in the
modern section are fine renderings of an infinite
variety of famous artistic homes designed by
Philip Webb, Norman Shaw, Baillie-Scott, C. F.
Voysey, Edgar Wood, and other famous architects.
Of most of the buildings reproduced plans are also
given, but the description of the internal decora-
tion is reserved for a future volume. The one
drawback in an excellent piece of literature which,
it is much to be hoped, may be translated into
English is that it has neither Table of Contents nor
Index. These will, of course, be supplied in the
concluding volume, but their addition to the first,
which is otherwise complete in itself, would have
been a great boon to the student.

Harry Furniss at Ho?ne. Written and Illustrated
by Himself. (Fisher Unwin.) i6j.net.—Although
it cannot be claimed that the popular caricaturist
and lecturer is as gifted a writer as he is a draughts-
man and speaker, his new volume is full of delight-
ful descriptions of famous contemporaries. It
teems with fun and humour, the author being
quite as ready to tell a good tale against himself as
against any of the acquaintances and friends he
satirises. In his Preface, he tells the story of a
judge who divided a lecture on humour into two
parts, the theoretical and practical; the former
was loudly applauded, the latter never came into
evidence, the lecturer playing on his audience
the practical joke of disappearing, spending the
time during which he was eagerly awaited, in
smoking a pipe at home in his study. This, Mr.
Furniss explains, is what he fain would have done
when Mr. Unwin pleaded for a new book from
him, the " Confessions " published two years ago
having had a great success. He warns his readers
not to expect too much, but for all that there is
little fear that any of them will be disappointed.
The delightful sketches, interspersed throughout
the book, show no falling off in their artist's faith-
ful interpretation of human nature, and the many
amusing incidents related manifest an equal facility
of expression. The habit of changing about from
one theme to another without 'anything to mark
the transition is, it is true, somewhat confusing,
and a little careful editing would have added to
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the value of the book; but this is a very small
drawback in a delightful pot poicrri. The com-
parison between Du Maurier and Max O'Rell is
peculiarly felicitous, and the chapter on " Some
Sports " is full of clever bits of description. That,
for instance, of the prize-fight brings the scene
most vividly before the reader, even without the
fine full-page illustration.

Edinburgh and its Story. By Oliph ant Smeaton.
(London: J. M. Dent.) 21J. net.—Though she
has long since lost her political ascendency, the
Queen of the North, as she is proudly called, is
still unrivalled in the beauty of her situation, the
deep romance of her associations, and the priceless
value of the relics of the past preserved within her
precincts, where the modem and the medieval
jostle each other at every turn. To treat satisfac-
torily a subject of so many complex interests within
the limits of a single volume was no easy task, but
no better writer could have been selected to deal
with it than Mr. William Oliphant Smeaton, the
well-known editor of several important series of
historical publications, and the author of numerous
essays on kindred topics. Beginning at the very
beginning, Mr. Smeaton remarks that the founda-
tions of the Scottish capital are lost in the mists
of a hoary antiquity, but in his delightful and
sympathetically told " story," her beautiful form
gradually emerges from these mists, assuming from
the first a unique character of her own, that she
has retained through all the varied vicissitudes of
her chequered career. Though Edinburgh's his-
tory as a capital ends with the Union of the Crowns,
the interest of her story has been maintained until
the present day, so many are the great names
associated with her, and so fully has she retained
the affections of Scotsmen, who look upon her as
the centre of the intellectual life as well as the
leader of society in their native land. Mr. Smeaton
is, therefore, not content with a mere resume of past
history; he describes the city as she is now, and in
this he has been most ably aided by his art colla-
borators, Mr. J. Ayton Symington and Mr. Herbert
Railton. The former is responsible for some of
the smaller sketches in the text, and for all the
original full-page coloured illustrations, amongst
which, perhaps the best are David Hume's House,
Strength and Speed across the Forth, and A Novem -
ber Day in Princes Street, all full of atmosphere
and admirably drawn. Mr. Railton contributes
twenty spirited sketches, and the new drawings
have been supplemented by what is perhaps the
most interesting feature of the book, several ad-
mirable renderings of famous portraits, including