er" recently purchased by P.-W.S._). "VERY
WELL KNOWN, SHE WAS, WID THE WARD UNION STAG HOUNDS. THE BOYS USED TO CALL
HER 'THE WIDDA,' FOR WHY THEY SAID YE COULD ALWAYS HEAR HER SOBBIN' AFTHER
THE DEER DEPARTED."]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)

Undeniably Mr. CARADOC EVANS is the bold boy. No doubt you remember (since
they are so difficult to forget) the two volumes in which he dealt
faithfully (and a bit over) with the manners of his countrymen in the land
of their fathers. I have heard, and can well believe, that some of Mr.
EVANS' own people were moved by this tribute even to the extent of
threatening its author with personal violence. And now he has turned from
Welsh Wales to English London, and gives us in _My Neighbours_ (MELROSE) a
further collection of sketches pleasantly calculated to prove that the
general detestability of his compatriots remains unchanged by their
migration from a whitewashed cottage to a villa in Suburbia. Whatever you
may think of Mr. EVANS' work, whether it attracts or violently repels,
there can be no question of its devastating skill. His sketches, no more
than a few pages in length, contain never an idle word, and the phrases
bite like vitriol. Moreover he employs an idiom that is (I conjecture) a
direct transcription from native speech, which adds enormously to the
effect. Understand me, not for worlds would I commend these volumes
haphazard to the fastidious; I only say they are clever, arresting and
violently individual. Also that, if you have not so far met the work of Mr.
EVANS, here is your opportunity, in a volume that shows it at its best, or
worst. Half-an-hour's reading will give you an excellent idea of it. At the
end of that time you will probably send either to the chemist for a
restorative or to the bookseller for the two previous volumes. Meanwhile,
if I were the writer, I should purchase a bulldog.

* * * * *

Mrs. GEORGE WEMYSS has for some time past specialised in spinster-aunts,
bachelor-uncles and charming nieces. In _Oranges and Lemons_ (CONSTABLE)
she introduces us pleasantly to some more. The plot, in fact, is chiefly
concerned with the violent squabbles of an uncle and aunt, who belong to
different sides of the family, for the good graces of _Diana_ (who is
nineteen, or thereabouts, and radiant), and _Shant_, (who says so--just
like that--and is five