elf highly and exceptionally popular. In this
_Diary_ 'ARRY is occasionally rather amusing when he is endeavouring
to be either serious or sentimental, or both. 'ARRY serious or 'ARRY
sentimental, or 'ARRY sentimentally serious and expecting to be taken
at his own valuation, is of course delightful, only a little of it
goes a great way, and this Cockney pilgrim goes too far, especially
when giving us his valuable opinion on the Passion Play. 'ARRY on the
Passion Play, and the character of JUDAS ISCARIOT! As _Hedda Gabler's_
husband observes on every possible opportunity--"Fancy _that_!" Only
once the Baron finds himself in agreement with the travelling 'ARRY,
and this happens when he says, "I must candidly confess that the
English-speaking people one meets with on the Continent are, taken as
a whole, a most disagreeable contingent." Yes, certainly, when they
are all 'Arries. Set an 'ARRY to catch an 'ARRY, and of course to the
regular right-down 'ARRY all other 'ARRIES, not 'appnin' to 'ave the
_h_onour of being 'is own par_tics_, are detestably vulgar cads. The
remainder of the book, i.e., 131 pages, is padded with essays, a fact
not mentioned on the outside of the work, which, like charity, covers
a multitude of sins. Whether this is quite a fair way of stating
contents, is a question which the Baron supposes both Publishers and
Author have thoroughly considered.

Don't skip ELLEN TERRY's Memoirs in _The New Review_. Nothing much in
them, but delightfully chatty and amusing. See _Murray's Magazine_ for
Mr. GLADSTONE on the _Murray Memoirs_, in the number for the "Murray
Month of May." When you are routing about for something short and
amusing, take up the _Cornhill_, and read _A Flash in the Pan_. I
have commenced, says the Baron, my friend GEORGE MEREDITH's _One of
the Conquerors_. Now G.M. is an author whose work does not admit of
the healthy and graceful exercise of skipping. Here the skipper's
occupation is gone. G.M.'s work should be taken away by the reader far
from the madding crowd and perused and pondered over. If Ponder's End
is a tranquil place as the name implies, then to that secluded spot
betake yourself with your GEORGE MEREDITH, O happy and studious
reader, and ponder in peace.

Since the time of _Richard Feverel_, which I shall always consider his
best, "of the very best" as ZERO of the Monte Carlo Bar has it, G.M.
has developed into a gold-beater of epigrams. What once served him
as a two-line epig