CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT BOOKS.
Battle Stories from British and European History, by W. H. Daven- port Adams (W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.) ; Bhore and Sea ; or, Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains, by the Same Author (Hodder and Stoughton).—In the first of these volumes, Mr. Adams has told the story of thirty battles, the earliest being Hastings and the latest Inkerman, and has told it with spirit. He cannot keep quite clear of mistakes, which probably are due to haste. Why, for instance, speak of the Queen of Edward II. as the " She-wolf of Anjou" ? Whence does he get the title ? From "the Bard" ? But on the whole, the book is a successful effort to give some striking scenes of history in a picturesque way. The second volume will be to many young readers more of a novelty than the first. The " Norse Sea-kings " is a chapter full of stirring adventure. Then we read about Sebastian Cabot, who is somewhat doubtfully called an "English discoverer." Another chapter is given to De Soto, the conqueror of Florida, and another, again, to "The Early Colonisers of Virginia." Drake, Hudson, and Morgan are the subjects of the three which complete the volume. Mr. Adams gives, we are glad to see, a list of his authorities. if he would omit his prefaces, which strike us as somewhat too:self-asserting, be would make a still further improvement.
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