Scenes and Studies. By Captain J. W. Clayton. (Longmetns.) — Papers
written for "sheer amusement" do not, for the most part, produce the same result when they are read. They remind us of the "easy writing" which a great authority declared to be very "hard reading." Captain Clayton gives us very common-place sketches of travel, and some speculations on such subjects as the "future existence of brutes," which strike us as not being particularly wise. But the thing in his book that is really beyond endurance is his jocosity. Here is a specimen that meets us on the first page :—" This is a book, then, not of (k)night errantry, but of errantry by day." Could there be any- thing more unbearable ? We cannot help thinking that the "many friends" who wished to see these sketches "bound together in print" were moved by a desire to avenge upon the public what they must have themselves suffered in hearing them.
Previous page
