descriptive of a merry-making given by a Lincolnshire farmer to his neighbours and dependents at Christmastide, 1662, when "wild ducks were selling at seven shillings a score in Boston market;" and turns on the love of a Puritan maiden for the son of the farmer, a thoroughgoing Church and State man. It is not, however, a vehicle for the introduction of the other stories, but simply a good Christmas tale giving name to the number. Miss M. B. Edwards and other popular writers follow with characteristic stories, an à propos article on mistletoe, and a clever paper on the tricks played upon the senses by the eyes-as good, indeed, as any sort of conjuring we know of. These articles, and several Christmas poems, are illustrated by John Gilbert, John Leighton, Phiz, and others. The wrapper enclosing the whole number is at once original and attractive. We insert an engraving from Mr. Fenton's story, "Neither Priest nor Parson." The incident referred to takes place during the Irish famine, when it was often a matter of extreme difficulty to find even potatoes for the famishing peasantry. Norah, the granddaughter of a cottager, is engaged to one Dick Canty, "a high-spirited lad as ever stepped, but mighty reckless, and without a penny to bless himself with." To prevent his correspondence with Norah, the old grandmother would watch for the coming of the postman in order to take his letters and hide them; but one day Norah, with white eager face, received a letter from the window while she slept. The boy and girl never married, however, for neither priest nor parson could stay the famine, or bring luck and happiness to the lovers; and a sad ending came of their wooing.

Brother Bertie and His Friends in the Fields and Flower Beds (Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.) Illustrated with many coloured pictures of rabbits, squirrels, birds, butterflies, blossoms, and other familiar denizens of the field and garden, this country story for little people will be welcomed by many to whom the advent of Christmas gives an opportunity of imparting pleasure and instruction,-for, of all gifts to children, none are so appropriate, so lasting, and so generally prized by their recipients, as books; and few books that have passed through our hands during the month seem better adapted to their purpose than "Brother Bertie and His Friends."

BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OF FLEMING, an account of the Biggar District, Chronological, Historical, and Biographical, by Wm. Hunter, F.S.A. Scot. (8vo. Edinburgh: W. Paterson.) Gilbert White's "Natural History of Selborne is an instance of the great success which a work, however confined in its scope, may achieve-if it is only well done. This History of Biggar, although it does not rival White's work, either in the interest of the locality described or in the style of composition, yet seems to be, of its sort, almost as complete as that famous production. Biggar, a name scarcely known on this side the Tweed, is as well known on the other as is Hampstead among ourselves. It is the cause and occasion of much wit, or "wut," in ScotsA North Briton will, indeed, lay a trap

men.

for his own wit with the name. If you admire Edinburgh he will say, "Yees, Edinbro' is a big town, but there's a Biggar in Scotland," and leaves you to see the joke. If you are in Glasgow, he will make the same humorous remark, transferring the point of his "wut" from Edinburgh to that city. It is of Biggar that Mr. Hunter writes. He has produced a goodly volume, which, however, considering its merits, must be pronounced to be no bigger than it' should be. The parish and town of Biggar, which he supposes to have been in all likelihood an ancient British village, is in Clydesdale, about twenty-three miles south-west from Edinburgh and thirty-two south-east from Glasgow, and consists of a main street noted for its breadth, two back streets, and a suburb; and, to judge from the lithographic representation in the volume, is a neat, clean, well-to-do place. The village is small; but, with the parish in which it is situate, forms the subject of 620 well-filled pages. Mr. Hunter seems to have done his work well, and to have, as far as we may take the liberty of judging, exhausted his subject. He begins at the beginning, giving us an account of the pre-historic remains of the district, pointing out supposed traces of Druids and Romans, and then carries us through the history of the place, through medieval times and the days of the Covenant, down to the present time, when he discusses the trade and commerce of the place. He furnishes also an interesting account of the superstitions and folk-lore of the district and concludes with a very detailed historic sketch, in five chapters, of the Fleming family. The volume is illustrated with about fifty woodcuts and lithographs, all bearing on the subject, some immediately, others rather remotely; but all add interest to the work. Like other churches in Scotland, the Kirk of Biggar possessed a sand-glass, formerly employed to indicate the time occupied in the performance of

divine service. It was usual to place this glass at the side of the pulpit in an iron stand, like the one here represented. At the restoration of the Savoy Chapel, London, which was made at the cost of her Majesty, an iron glass-stand of this description was placed in its old position.