rTc, THE EDITOR OF TRU "SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—Following the correspondence on
this subject, may I refer your readers who have children that are appreciative of
poetry, and who like poetry being read to them, to " Jack and the Beanstalk" in English hexameters, by Hallam Tennyson ? The book is illustrated with unfinished sketches made by Randolph Caldecott, and is a source of delight both to young and older children. The following passages, taken at random,
are illustrative of the style, and sound very quaintly when repeated by youthful mimics:— "With fat cheeks peony-bulbous Ladle in hand, she stood, and spake in a tone of amusement : ' Oh ! what a cramp'd-up, small, insesquipedalian object !' " " Called for his hen, said `Lay' ; so she with a chuck cock-a-doodle, Dropt him an egg, pure gold, a refulgent luminous oval."
" `Climb me,' the bean-stalk said with a whisper. Jack, reaecending, Swarm'd to the wonderful isle once more, and high habitation."
"Jack cleft clean thro' the haulm; that Giant desperate hurl'd his Limbs in a downward, roaring, thund'ring precipitation, Crash'd to the ground stone-dead with a crash as a crag from a mountain."
Gartcosh House, Gartcosh, near Glasgow.
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