own's Schooldays." In Novello's "National Nursery
Rhymes" are also several of his designs.

This list, which occupies so small a space, represents several hundred
designs, all treated in a manner which is decorative (although it
eschews the Duerer line), but marked by strong "colour." Indeed, Mr.
Hughes's technique is all his own, and if hard pressed one might own
that in certain respects it is not impeccable. But if his textures are
not sufficiently differentiated, or even if his drawing appears careless
at times--both charges not to be admitted without vigorous
protest--granting the opponent's view for the moment, it would be
impossible to find the same peculiar tenderness and naive fancy in the
work of any other artist. His invention seems inexhaustible and his
composition singularly fertile: he can create "bogeys" as well as
"fairies."

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)]

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "DOWN THE SNOW STAIRS." BY GORDON
BROWNE (BLACKIE AND SON)]

It is true that his children are related to the sexless idealised race
of Sir Edward Burne-Jones's heroes and heroines; they are purged of
earthy taint, and idealised perhaps a shade too far. They adopt
attitudes graceful if not realistic, they have always a grave serenity
of expression; and yet withal they endear themselves in a way wholly
their own. It is strange that a period which has bestowed so much
appreciation on the work of the artists of "the sixties" has seen no
knight-errant with "Arthur Hughes" inscribed on his banner--no
exhibition of his black-and-white work, no craze in auction-rooms for
first editions of books he illustrated. He has, however, a steady if
limited band of very faithful devotees, and perhaps--so inconsistent are
we all--they love his work all the better because the blast of
popularity has not trumpeted its merits to all and sundry.

Three artists, often coupled together--Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott,
and Kate Greenaway--have really little in common, except that they all
designed books for children which were published about the same period.
For Walter Crane is the serious apostle of art for the nursery, who
strove to beautify its ideal, to decorate its legends with a real
knowledge of architecture and costume, and to "mount" the fairy stories
with a certain archaeological splendour, as Sir Henry Irving has set
himself to mount Shakespearean drama. Cald