1st round. * Work 4 long stitches, make 3 chain, and repeat from * 7 times more.

2nd. Work a stitch of double crochet into the 3 chain, make 7 chain, and repeat.

3rd. Work 2 stitches of double crochet, beginning on the 1st of the 7 chain, make 5 chain, turn, miss 1 loop, work into successive loops a stitch of double crochet, and 3 long stitches, miss 3 loops, work 2 stitches of double crochet, make 5 chain, turn, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st of the 5 chain, and repeat. 4th. Work a stitch of double crochet at the point, make 11 chain, and repeat.

5th. Work a stitch of double crochet, make 5 chain, miss 3 loops and repeat.

6th. Work 3 stitches of double crochet into the 5 chain, make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st, work 3 more stitches of double crochet into the same place, make 1 chain and repeat.

7th. Work a stitch of double crochet into the 1 chain, make 9 chain and repeat.

8th. Work 8 stitches of double crochet into the 9 chain, make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st, and repeat.

2nd Pattern. Make a chain of 21 stitches, and unite it, make 21 chain, and unite it, work 3 stitches of double crochet into the 21 chain, * make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st of the 5 chain, work 3 stitches of double crochet, repeat from 6 times more, work into the other 21 chain, the same as 1st. Four of these patterns will be required for this doyley.

3rd. Make a chain of 16 stitches, and unite it, make 16 chain and unite it, make 16 chain and unite it, then work into each of the 16 chain 24 stitches of double crochet.

Eight of these patterns will be required for this doyley.

4th. Make a chain of 9 stitches, and unite it, make 9 chain and unite it, inake 9 chain and unite it, then work into each of the 9 chain 11 of double crochet.

Four of these patterns will be required for this doyley.

5th. Make a chain of 6 stitches and unite it. 1st. round. *, work a stitch of double crochet, make 4 chain, repeat from 5 times more.

*

2nd. Work into the 4 chain a stitch of double crochet, 4 long stitches, and another stitch of double crochet, repeat.

3rd. Work a stitch of double crochet over the

4th. Work into the six chain in last round, 1 stitch of double crochet, 6 long stitches, 1 more stitch of double crochet, repeat.

5th. Work a stitch of double crochet over the one in 3rd round, make 8 chain and repeat.

6th. Work into the 8 chain, 1 stitch of double crochet, 8 long stitches, 1 of double crochet, repeat.

7th. Work a stitch of double crochet over the one in 5th round, make 10 chain and repeat.

8th. Work into the 10 chain, 1 stitch of double crochet, 10 long stitches, 1 of double crochet, and repeat.

9th. Work a stitch of double crochet over the one in 7th round, make 12 chain, repeat.

10th. Work into the 12 chain, 1 stitch of double crochet, 12 long stitches, 1 of double crochet and repeat.

11th. Work a stitch of double crochet over the one in 9th round, make 14 chain and repeat.

12th. Work into the 14 chain, 1 stitch of double crochet, 14 long stitches, 1 of double crochet, and repeat.

13th. Work a stitch of double crochet over the one in 11th round, make 14 chain, and repeat.

Work 2 patterns for this doyley.

6th Pattern. Make a chain of 12 stitches, and unite it.

*

Work into the circle a stitch of double crochet, two long stitches, make three chain, repea, from twice more, work 2 double long stitchest make 4 chain, work 2 double long stitches, *, make 3 chain, work 2 long stitches, repeat from * twice more, work a stitch of double crochet, make 7 chain. Repeat from the beginning.

In working the 2nd pattern, join it to the 1st with the 2nd 3 chain, work 3 leaves in this manner, then make only 3 chain, and work a 4th leaf without joining it to the 3rd, make 3 chain after the 4th leaf, and work a stitch of double crochet into the last 7 chain, make 3 chain.

Work 4 patterns for this doyley.

7th Pattern. Make a chain of 5 stitches, and unite it.

1st round. Work a stitch of double crochet, make 5 chain, and repeat 4 times more.

2nd. Work into the 5 chain a stitch of double crochet, make 3 chain, and repeat till 5 stitches of double crochet are done; repeat.

3rd. Work a stitch of double crochet into

4th. Same as 2nd.

5th. Work a stitch of double crochet into the one in 3rd round, make 7 chain, and repeat. 6th. Same as 2nd.

7th. Same as 5th.

8th. Same as 2nd, only 4 chain instead of 3. 9th. Work a stitch of double crochet into the one in 7th round, make 8 chain, and repeat.

10th. The same as 8th, only making 5 chain instead of 4.

Two of these patterns will be required for this doyley.

8th Pattern. Make a chain of 8 stitches, and unite it.

let round. Work a stitch of double crochet, make 11 chain, miss 1 loop, and repeat 3 times

more.

2nd. Work into the 11 chain, *, 3 stitches of double crochet, make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st chain, repeat from twice more, work 3 more double crochet, refrom the beginning of the row.

Four patterns of this number will be required for this doyley.

9th Pattern. Make a chain of 8 stitches, and unite it.

1st round. Work into the circle 1 long stitch, make 3 chain, repeat 9 times more.

2nd. Work into the 3 chain a stitch of double crochet, make 17 chain, work another stitch of double crochet into the same place, make 1

uext 3 chain, make 1 chain, and repeat.

3rd. Work into the 17 chain 20 stitches of double crochet, work a stitch of double crochet into the 1 chain, make one chain, work a stitch of double crochet into the next one chain, and repeat.

4th. Work a stitch of double crochet into the 1 chain in last round, *, work 5 stitches of double crochet into successive loops, beginning on the 1st of the 20, make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st of the 5, repeat from * twice more, then work 5 stitches of double crochet into successive loops, and repeat from the beginning of the round.

Four of these patterns will be required for this doyley.

10th Pattern. Make 21 chain, and unite it, make a chain of 27, and unite it, make a chain of 21, and unite it.

1st round. Work into the 21 chain 25 stitches of double crochet, work into the 27 chain 31 stitches of double crochet, work into the 21 chain 25 of double crochet.

2nd. Work 3 stitches of double crochet into successive loops, make 5 chain, work a stitch of single crochet into the 1st of the 5 chain, repeat this 6 times more, then work 3 stitches of double crochet, and repeat from the beginning in the centre loop, repeat this 9 times instead of 7.

Four of these are required for this doyley. The patterns have now to be united into the desired form.

CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS BOOKS. WARNE'S PICTURE-BOOKS.(F. Warne & Co., London.)-There is a practical knowledge of child's nature and its requirements in the new idea embodied in the highly-coloured illustrations of the thin quartos before us, which will be appreciated by the small denizens of many a nursery. These books afford a treble feast. First there are the pictures themselves, then the story they serve to illustrate, and lastly the satisfaction of cutting out the figures, which are printed on separate pages, and of pasting them into their proper places in blank spaces left for the purpose on a coloured background. Scissors, and gum, and camel-hair brush, are all called into requisition, thus giving occupation as well as amusement to the possessors of "The House we live in," "The Nursery Play-book," and "Holiday Fun." The series may be more extensive, but as the

publisher has not favoured us with others we cannot say. The idea is worthy of a good fairy, conscious of the mischief that is sure to ensue when children have no means of turning their natural restlessness to account. Amuse a child and you keep him out of half-a-dozen small scrapes and naughtinesses-a state of things which may every day be observed in children of a larger growth. From the Puzzle Toy-books other beneficent results may be hoped for. The impatient or careless child will be certain to disappoint his intentions, for the objects require to be cut out with care and precision, or they will not fit the spaces left for them. Their neat adjustment, again, will depend on the exercise of these habits, which, when once formed in the child, will do him service ever after. Loving grandmammas (as useful as the fairy-godmother of old) or childless aunt or bachelor uncle, who play the role of

circle, will do well to remember the special charms of the Puzzle Toy-books for some of their younger clients.

AUNT'S FRIENDLY NURSERY KEEPSAKE, published by the same house, deserves a place It amongst juvenile gift-books of the season. abounds in brilliantly-coloured pictures, and contains the most popular of the dear old stories, the memory of which survives the newer ones, and, retold by Aunt Friendly, are (if that were possible) more entertaining than ever. Amongst more familiar reprints, we find Hans Christian Andersen's delightful fairy-tale, "The Ugly Duckling," which appears established as a favourite in English homesteads.

NURSERY TALES AND STORIES, AND NURSERY SONGS AND BALLADS (Ward, Lock, and Tyler) come under the same category as the above, and make, perhaps, the nine hundred and ninety-ninth edition of these juvenile classics. of which the readers never seem to weary, We may say the same of Messrs. Routledge's

and the Bean-stalk" and "Tom Thumb," and the pitiful tragedy of the "Babes in the Wood" -old stories which no newer ones have ever yet effaced from the memory of the old British reader.

For boys and girls of more advanced years, there is THE BOOK OF RARE OLD BALLADS (Ward, Lock, & Co.), THE BOY's HAND-BOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY (published by the above firm), and Mrs. S. C. Hall's MIDSUMMER'S EVE, a Fairy Tale of Loving and being Loved, republished with the original illustrations (Hotten). Most young people are acquainted with "Esop's Fables;" but Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin have ventured on reproducing them, with illustrations from the characteristic and humorous pencil of Griset. In looking over this list, we are struck by the absence of novelty. With one or two exceptions, all are reprints-of popular works certainly, but for which publishers have paid no copyright for many generations,

The readers of the Edinburgh Review have rarely enjoyed a treat rarely furnished by journalism. In its columns have appeared large extracts from an unpublished book printed in England for private circulation. The Memoir and Selected Letters of Miss Edgeworth, by the late Mrs. Edgeworth, is a title that will excite high expectations among those to whom the fertile invention and keen observation of the Irish novelist have made her name like that of a household friend; and the favoured few who had glimpses of the happy and well-ordered family life, whose movement is here displayed, will feel a double pleasure in finding their fragmentary remembrances in harmony with the whole tenor of her days. This volume is one of those rare biographies like Lockhart's "Life of Scott," or Moore's "Letters of Lord Byron;" a biography whose subject is memorable, whose materials are ample, whose execution combines judgment with affection. The charge of concealing or of palliating faults, so cften and so justly brought against those who write the lives of their friends, would have no reason here. Miss Edgeworth is before us in her letters just as she must have seemed to those around herthe lively, witty, sensible woman that our fathers found so attractive; a little prosaic, perhaps, never rising above a certain level in her writings, but within her own region thoroughly admirable.

We design to give our readers, in as brief a space as possible, an idea of. the contents of this book, especially of the social life described in it. Miss Edgeworth was not only a lion herself, but she was the friend or acquaintance of a great many other lions. Her social position was the best; and at that time almost every literary celebrity belonged either by birth or adoption to the set in which she lived. At home and abroad, she met the people of whom we like to hear. Her letters abound in anecdotes and details of the famous men and women of her time.

She was born in Oxfordshire, January 1, 1767, and was the only daughter of her father's first marriage. He had four wives; and not the least entertaining and remarkable portion of the Memoir relates to him and them. His character, a it comes out through the book, is a peculiar one. He was a man of plans and purposes; full of energy and vivacity, and apt to talk of himself; something of a bore, we suppose, in general society, at our first extract will show; but alike agreeable and useful to his family. Lord Byron met him at a company in the later years of his life.

"I have been reading the life by himself and daughter of Mr. R. L. Edgeworth, the father of the Miss Edgeworth. It is altogether a great name. In 1813, I recollect to have met them in the fashionable world of London, in the

assemblies of the hour, and at a breakfast of Sir Humphrey and Lady Davy's, to which I was invited for the nonce. I had been the lion of 1812; Miss Edgeworth and Madame de Staël, with the Cossack, towards the end of 1813, were the exhibitions of the succeeding year. I thought Edgeworth a fine old fellow, of a clarety, elderly, red complexion, but active, brisk, and endless. He was seventy, but did not look fifty-no, nor forty-eight, even. I had seen poor Fitzpatrick not very long before-a man of pleasure, wit, eloquence, all things. He tottered, but still talked like a gentleman, though feebly. Edgeworth bounced about, and talked loud and long, but he seemed neither weakly nor decrepit, and hardly old.

"He was not much admired in London, and I remember a 'ryghte merrie' and conceited jest which was rife among the gallants of the day, viz., a paper had been presented for the recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage, to which all men had been called to subscribe. Whereupon Thomas Moore, of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper should be subscribed and circumscribed for the recall of Mr. Edgeworth to Ireland. The fact was everybody cared more about her. She was a nice little unassuming Jenny-Deans-looking body,' as we Scotch say; and if not handsome, certainly not ill-looking. Her conversation was as quiet as herself. One would never have guessed she could write her name; whereas her father talked, not as if he could write nothing else, but as if nothing else was worth writing.' Byron iss aid to have proposed a Society for the Suppression of Edgeworth; but

"Edgeworth was insuppressible; and, take him for all in all, he was not a man whom it was proper or expedient to suppress. With the simple change of gender, we might apply to him what Talleyrand said of Madame de Stael: 'Elle est vraiment insupportable; which he qualified after a short pause by, 'c'est son seul défaut.'"

Certainly he was not a stupid man; his letters and the anecdotes of him prove the contrary. He came of a stock that had plenty of nerve and wit.

"His maternal grandfather was a Welsh judge, named Lovell, of whom it is related that, travelling over the sands of Beaumaris as he was going circuit, he was overtaken by the tide ; the coach stuck fast in a quicksand; the water rose rapidly, and the registrar, who had crept out of the window and taken refuge on the coach-box, whilst the servants clustered on the roof, earnestly entreated the judge to do the same. With the water nearly touching his lips, he gravely replied: "I will follow your counsel if you can quote any precedent for a judge's mounting a coach-box.'

Edgeworth himself said, "I am not a man of prejudice; I had four wives: the second and third were sisters; and I was in love with the second in the lifetime of the first." It came about in this wise: The first Mrs. Edgeworth, Maria's mother, seems to heve been neither

attractive nor cheerful. In 1770, her husband visited his friend Day, the author of "Sandford and Merton," in Lichfield; then he met Miss Honora Sneyd, and his admiration for her appears from his memoirs; but conscious of his weakness, he went abroad with Day.

"He was certainly deeply attached to her; and so was Day, who wrote her an argumentative proposal comprised in several sheets of paper, to which she wrote an equally long and argumentative refusal. The pith of his reasoning was that the best thing for her would be to live with him secluded from what is called the world; the pith of her reply being that she would rather live in it. On receiving this reply he took to his bed and was profusely bled by his friend Dr. Darwin; but speedily thought better of the matter, got up, rejoined the circle, and fell in love with her sister."

This sister had a high esteem for dancing and fencing; and Day went abroad to learn them.

They spent two years in Lyons; Mrs. Edgeworth died in 1773, and shortly afterwards the widower married Miss Sneyd.

"On Mr. Edgeworth's marriage with Honora Sneyd, Maria accompanied them to Ireland. Of this visit she recollected very little, except that she was a mischievous child, amusing herself once at her aunt Fox's when the company were unmindful of her, cutting out the squares in a checked sofa cover, and one day trampling through a number of hot-bed frames that had just been glazed, laid on the grass before the door at Edgeworth-Town. She recollected her delight at the crashing of the glass, but, immorally, did not remember either cutting her feet or how she was punished for this perform

ance."

This stepmother was a most affectionate parent to her; her only printed letter to her daughterin-law, written in the last year of her life, shows her watchful kindness. She says:

"It is very agreeable to me to think of conversing with you as my equal in every respect but age, and of my making that inequality of use to you, by giving you the advantage of the experience I have had, and the observations I have been able to make, as these are parts of knowledge which nothing but time can bestow." Edgeworth himself, in his first letter, says much the same :

"It would be very agreeable to me, my dear Maria, to have letters from you familiarly; I wish to know what you like and what you dislike; I wish to communicate to you what little knowledge I have acquired, that you may have a tincture of every species of literature, and form your taste by choice and not by chance."

Honora died in 1780, and the next year Edgeworth, in accordance with her dying wish, married her sister Elizabeth, "who had flung over Day after he had undergone a regular gymnastic training for her sake."

After Honora's death, Mr. Edgeworth writes to his daughter:

"I beg that you will send me a tale about the length of a Spectator' upon the subject of

6