SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



159 



A Garden of Pleasure. By E. V. B. 230 pp. 

 8vo, with illustrations by the author. (London : 

 Elliot Stock, 1895.) Price 5s. 



The publisher has prettily produced this book for 

 the Hon. Mrs. Eleanor Vere Boyle, the authoress. 

 In these days of ' ' Progress, ' ' Trades-unions and over 

 centralization of the rural folk to grimy cities, one 

 feels refreshed by dipping into the sweet simplicity 

 of the country life depicted in these pages. There 

 is no attempt or straining after literary effect, but 

 a healthy story of one glad to live in an old country 

 house surrounded by its beautiful garden. These 

 are the lives which so beautifully illustrate the 

 meaning of the English word " home." The pages 

 are full of country-lore, as will be seen from the 

 following, selected at 

 random. "Either to- 

 day or on May-day, one 

 ought to see the fairies, 

 according to the old 

 Scottish legends ! No 

 fairies appeared this 

 time, but I saw a good 

 deal between eight and 

 nine, looking from the 

 broad walk upon our 

 old kitchen garden walls, 

 bright with the eastern 

 sun. How shall the 

 charm of these old brick 

 walls be described ? 

 Words could never 

 paint it. In the clear 

 glow of morning light 

 the reds are so delicately 

 pure and warm, and 

 they are mottled with 

 such varied greys and 

 many - tinted yellows. 

 There are stout old 

 buttresses, too, mossed 

 and ferny, and grey with 

 eld. Ancient rugged 

 pear-trees grow up 

 against it, and their 

 outstretched knotted old 

 limbs are set now with 

 knots of flowers, and 

 young, tender leaves, and 

 the half- transparent 

 shadow of every flower 

 and leaf lies still or 

 trembles on the wall. 

 One of these pear-trees, 

 quite worn out and decayed 



(From "A Garden of Pleasure.") 



with 



ge, had 

 been cleared away last winter, leaving a broad 

 vacant space, a space that is not bare, but 

 full of interest. Little incidents and details, 

 unobserved before, were plainly seen this morning. 

 There is a curious arrangement of wood bricks 

 built in regular order amongst the others. 

 Worm-eaten and decayed, they have weathered 

 to the same colour as the . 

 and are so inconspicuous 

 unremarked. These wood 

 been devised for the more 

 fruit-trees. The fine new 

 days might not be disfigured with nails. Some 

 have fallen out, leaving recesses convenient for 

 wrens' and other nests. Suddenly appeared a 

 curved line of bricks, set end-wise, showing where 

 once had been a low-browed narrow doorway, 

 bricked up long since. There is another as low and 

 narrow, faintly visible further down. Carlyle 



greyer of the bricks, 



is to pass, usually, 



bricks must have 



careful nailing-up of 



garden walls of those 



wrote of the days ' when dresses were smaller and 

 thoughts were larger.' Certainly our modern 

 doorways are mostly wider than those of older 

 date." 



Astronomers and their Observations. By Lucy 

 Taylor. With Preface by W. Thynne Lynn, B. A., 

 F.R.A.S. 160 pp. crown 8vo, with illustrations. 

 (London: Partridge and Co., 1895.) Price is. 6d. 



The object of this compilation has been to gather 

 up within a small compass what has been 

 accomplished from the earliest ages by astronomers. 

 The story is pleasantly told, and is more especially 

 suited to young people. The following paragraph 

 is an example of the author's style. Writing of 

 comets she says : " Had 

 they to penetrate air they 

 could not possibly move 

 at such tremendous 

 speed, but, meeting with 

 little or no resistance 

 in their paths, they go 

 tearing round the sun at 

 the rate of two or three 

 hundred miles a second, 

 and then retire to the 

 other extremity of their 

 orbit to progress at 

 about the rate of a 

 London cab." 



Chemists and their 

 Wonders : The Story of 

 the Application of Chem- 

 istry to various Arts and 

 Manufactures. By F. 

 M. Holmes. 160 pp. 

 crown 8vo, with illus- 

 trations. (London: 

 Partridge and Co., 

 1895.) Price is. 6d. 



This, like "Astro- 

 nomers and their Ob- 

 servations," is another 

 of "The World's Won- 

 ders Series" written for 

 young readers. They 

 make good school prizes 

 or gift-books. This one 

 is in conversational 

 style, which is not alto- 

 gether an advantage. 

 Chemistry, even as 

 simply told in this book, 

 is rather abstruse to the very young, to whom 

 conversation appeals ; while elder young people 

 are apt to look upon it with some contempt. 

 Still this book will have a multitude of readers who 

 will learn much from its pages. The illustrations 

 are generally well selected and some amusing, for 

 instance the reproduced caricature of the use of 

 coal gas in 1807. as viewed by our present knowledge 

 of it as an illuminant. In the conversations the 

 author is " Frank," there is also " Phil " and Phil's 

 sister, who is called " Carrie." The author says : 

 "Carrie is always taking my part. We are to be 

 married soon, and you cannot think how nice it is 

 to have a jolly girl like Phil's sister — and so 

 intelligent too —always taking your part." These 

 young people visit various works, such as some for 

 making gas, matches, aniline dyes, glass, and 

 dynamite. Photography as well as these and other 

 subjects make conversation, which is both amusing 

 and instructive. 



