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New Director To Royal College Of Music. —"Who would succeed Sir George Grove?" that was the question. The answer to the inquiry was, "Who but Parry?" Whereupon Hubert Parry was appointed. Now, all music at the College, of whatever nationality, will be taught à la mode de Parry.

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

Some people are disposed to deny to Mr. Gladstone a sense of humour. They will surely reconsider their judgment in view of the fact that the late Premier made the author of Work and Wages (Longmans) a Lord-in-waiting to the Queen. The volume contains in handy form a series of addresses and papers spoken and written by Lord Brassey during the last quarter of a century. They disclose profound knowledge, not only of the principles that underlie the connection between Work and Wages, but of the everyday practices that sometimes control it. Throughout, the book is marked by a broad spirit and statesmanlike view which, if more common, would make strikes much more uncommon. As Mr. George Howell inhis introduction points out, when in 1869 the young member for Hastings (not yet Lord Brassey) addressed the House of Commons on the subject ofTrade Unions there were very few members who knew anything about the subject, except that they did not like it. Mr. Brassey, the son of one of the greatest employers of labour of the day, had the breadth of mind to recognise the right of industrial organisation representing labour, and lived to see the ban against trades unions removed by the House of Commons. The book is, my Baronite says, the most valuable contribution to the intricate question discussed of any recently published. Truly a most remarkable work for an ex-lord-in-waiting. We shall next hear of Mr. "Bobby" Spencer coming out with a treatise on the Solar Parallax.

"With delight," writes a young Baronite, "the ordinary schoolboy turns from even Old Æsop's words of wisdom to the ever-blissful fascinations of cowboys, Red Indians, and all the untrammelled pleasures of ranch life which are to be met with in following The Great Cattle Trail, by Edward S. Ellis (Cassell & Co.); and certainly life appears very, so very interesting, when you can be a hero with Buffalo Bill effect."

Five Stars in a Little Pool, by Edith Carrington (Cassell & Co.), suggests lives and billiards, but that is the wrong cue to give, except that it is five little stories in black on white, "red" is added when you've finished the book.

Cassell & Co. evidently, or, says a Baronite fresh from school, "Ovidently" put a new construction on "Ars est celare Artem," for in their Magazine of Art it is clearly shown not only what Art does but how it does it. The etchings and photogravures are charming. There is a capital article on stage costumes, and among them is found the original idea out of which the fashionable Serpentine dance was twirlingly evolved.

Most little people will be much amused by the waggish tale of Toby, by Ascott R. Hope. He is not of course Mr. Punch's "Toby," cela va sans dire. There cannot be two Tobies. It is "Toby or not Toby," and there is no "question" about it. This Toby, to whom the Toby never stood godfather, gives us the benefit of his amusing opinions. He is brought out by Innes (& Co.), and is one of the daintiest dogs in the Dainty Book Series. So much for Toby.

Any who read the first series of Eighteenth Century Vignettes, by Austin Dobson, will eagerly welcome a second series issued by the same publishers, Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Of all writers at work to-day, Mr. Austin Dobson is most profoundly steeped in the literary essence of the Eighteenth Century, and is most successful in reproducing its flavour. In writing about Swift, Richardson, Dr. Johnson, or the topography of Humphrey Clinker (a learned, yet most mellow disquisition), he does not condescend to the easily-acquired trick of introducing archaic words, or inverting sections of phrases with which we are familiar in the works of some other artists on the same broad pavement. Yet, withal, there is in the literary style of these pleasant chats round about the old writers, booksellers and bookbuyers, a certain distinct Eighteenth Century flavour. So intimate is Mr. Dobson with the ways, the personal appearance, the dress, the daily environment, and the little gestures of the more or less mighty dead, that he is able to recall them to startlingly vivid life. His picture of Swift writing to Stella from his bed in the back room of a first floor in Bury Street, St. James's, is a masterpiece of live portraiture.

The Baron De Book-Worms.

A SNUB.

Hypatia Roland (to the Brown's Parlourmaid). "Call me a Hansom, please."

Cadby. "I'm going your way, Miss Roland. We might go together."

Miss Roland. "Two Hansoms, please!"

"ALL'S WELL!"

A DUET.