Fair first editions, duly prized,
Above them all, methinks, I rate
The tome where Walton's hand revised
His wonderful receipts for bait!

Happy, who rich in toys like these
Forgets a weary nation's ills,
Who from his study window sees
The circle of the Sussex hills!



SOME JAPANESE BOGIE-BOOKS



There is or used to be a poem for infant minds of a rather
Pharisaical character, which was popular in the nursery when I was a
youngster. It ran something like this:-.


I thank my stars that I was born
A little British child.


Perhaps these were not the very words, but that was decidedly the
sentiment. Look at the Japanese infants, from the pencil of the
famous Hokusai. Though they are not British, were there ever two
jollier, happier small creatures? Did Leech, or Mr. Du Maurier, or
Andrea della Robbia ever present a more delightful view of innocent,