vertisements of variegated hue;
No more in every thoroughfare will each obtrusive hoarding
Blaze, hideously chromatic, with its yellow, red, and blue.

One thing, perhaps, you'll tell us,--you will pardon the suggestion--
We doubt not your ability your purposes to win,
But yet our curiosity would fain propound the question,--
How, excellent Society, and when, will you begin?

* * * * *

"THE FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE SPRING" may now be seen in all their
glory at the Crystal Palace Show. The excellent arrangements there
made for their exhibition prove that they have been designed and
carried out by a clever "Head"-Gardener.

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

[Illustration: At Easter Time the Baron de B.-W. visits his friend
_The_ Peer of Brighton.]

Seeing that _A Wild Wooing_ (published by F. V. WHITE & CO.) is by
FLORENCE WARDEN, authoress of _The House on the Marsh_, the Baron
anticipated a real treat. But he was somewhat disappointed. The novel
is in one volume, which is an attraction, and that volume is of a
portable size, which is another note in its favour; also it is
not illustrated, which is an undisguised blessing. The story is
interesting up to a certain point, which, however, does not take you
very far into the book, and, after this point, the murmurings behind
walls, the moving and dragging of heavy bodies under the floors, the
insecure rope-ladders, the trap-doors, cellars, underground passages,
smugglers, murderers, victims, and all sorts of mixed mysteries,
become tiresome. There is yet another fault, which is, that the story
is not told in so convincing a style as to make the reader feel quite
sure that the authoress is not "getting at him" all the time, and
just trying to see what quantity of old melodramatic stuff he will
patiently stand.

Henceforth FLORENCE WARDEN will do well to get away from the rusty
bars, bolts, chains, trap-doors, and cellars, from ruined castles,
as grim as that of _Udolpho_, "of which," as Sir WALTER said in his
preface to _Waverley_, "the Eastern wing had long been uninhabited,
and the keys either lost, or consigned to the care of some aged butler
or housekeeper, whose trembling steps, &c., &c." Accidentally, turning
from "White" to "Black," the Baron took up the first volume of the
excellent re-issue of the _Waverley Novels_, by Messrs. ADAM AND
CHARLES BLACK, called _The Dryburgh Editio