THO

TABLE TALK.

MERCY TO ANIMALS.

HOUGH startling revelations of cruelty to animals are still afforded, the lesson of mercy has, in this country at least, been learnt. Such instances of the infliction of suffering as now and then come up are due to greed rather than savagery. A man of miserly disposition starves and overworks his horses, in complete oblivion of the fact that the apparent economy is, in fact, extravagance and waste. Now and then only some barbarian tortures a cat or performs some similar atrocity. In this case public sentiment is directly against him, and public feeling is outraged. This is a great advance upon what existed a comparatively few years ago. When a man flogs a horse he does so with the knowledge that his conduct is likely to provoke remonstrance, in presence of which he is now cowed and meek, instead of, as at one time, abusive. In this respect England, one is glad to think, leads the civilised world. How few visitors to Spain or Italy have not suffered from witnessing the revolting cruelties practised upon beasts of burden, and especially upon the donkey! In countries farther north, and more advanced in culture and civilisation, the lesson of man's obligation to defend the lower creation is imperfectly learnt, or at least imperfectly practised.

SP

THE INFLUENCE OF "SPORT."

PORT is, of course, the great incentive to brutality. While three-fourths of our aristocracy, our legislators, and our upper classes generally derive their chief enjoyment from slaughter, a condition of affairs much higher than that which at present exists is scarcely to be hoped for. With the question of the influence of field sports I cannot deal. Game constitutes a not unimportant portion of our food supply, and is not easily domesticated. It will be cheaper while gentlefolk amuse themselves with its slaughter than if we have to engage and pay for professional butchers. The

exercise of amateur butchery cannot, however, possibly fail to brutalise, to some extent, the feelings. Yet the occupation is not confined to the landed gentry, among whom feudal influences still prevail. The prosperous lawyer or merchant has a Scotch moor; the successful painter takes a salmon-stream. The instinct of the chase of animals in times of peace and of men in time of war seems one of the strongest and most deeply rooted of those by which our nature is swayed; and when this is conquered the time will restore the Age of Gold or bring with it the Millennium.

Εν

THE SPORTS OF OUR GRANDFATHERS.

VEN in regard to sport we have mended somewhat. The amount of the slaughter is that, no doubt, by which the sportsman's happiness is measured. As means of destruction are. improved the chance of the quarry is diminished, until the word "battue" has to be applied to the proceeding. No pretence survives that the pedestrian ramble through autumnal woods is the real enjoyment, and that the shooting of a few birds is an occupation as well as a contribution to the domestic larder. Here is the complaint of the discontented sportsman: "I was badly placed, and did not kill more than twenty-five birds in the day." If, however, we are greedier and more sanguinary than our ancestors, we are, at any rate, more civilised. A little cockfighting goes on still, and the joy of witnessing it is the fiercer for the necessity of secrecy. Bull-baiting and bear-baiting can scarcely, however, be practised in secret, and these things have quite died out among us. Meanwhile I, as a sexagenarian, if such an indiscreet confession is pardonable on the part of one who remains the shadow of a name, touch the time when incredibly barbarous amusements were indulged in on the sly. What do my readers think of the following as an entertainment? An owl was fastened on the back of a duck, who was sent off on the water. To keep her seat the owl stuck her claws into the back of the duck, who, in order to get rid of her strange burden, dived into the water. Upon reaching once more the light the owl uttered a plaintive too-whoo! further frightening the duck, who again dived, and the process was renewed. Ultimately the owl was drowned. I have not seen this performance, which I think I have before mentioned, but have heard the account from my father. Another amusement, not less edifying, I have, however, in my childhood witnessed. This is to set a cat afloat in a wooden bowl or tub, and then attack her with dogs. Puss contrived to scratch the noses of her assailants,

but the tub was generally upset or waterlogged, and then she fell an easy prey to her enemies. Not easy is it to conceive of a return to these amusements, against which human feeling revolts. There are, however, individuals in plenty who would enjoy recreation of the kind, and severe penalties have been necessary to prevent our "golden youth" from the hunting of cats. In olden days a terrier was little prized unless he was able, and ready, to kill a cat.

ET one more illustrated edition of "Rabelais" is an answer,

YET

final, it is to be hoped, and conclusive, to the challenge of English prudery, which sought to deprive the English-reading public of the works of one of the profoundest of thinkers and most inspired of humorists. Beautiful as is the shape in which the new "Rabelais "1 is issued to the world, the text is unchanged, consisting simply of a reproduction of the first edition of Urquhart and Motteux, which forms the basis of every subsequent edition. Nothing, then, is new except an erudite and ingenious introduction of M. Anatole de Montaiglon, to all the conclusions of which I am not prepared to assent, and the illustrations of M. Chalon. Beautiful and original enough are these. They are not, however, destined to supplant in public estimation the well known and highly prized designs of Picart, or the later and more familiar illustrations of Gustave Doré and A. de Robida. In one design at least, however, the difficulty of conveying an idea of the size of Rabelais' giants is surmounted. We have here a presentation of a scene inside the mouth of Rabelais, along which a knight, armed cap-à-pie with lance and pennon, is "pricking," having lost his way. Beyond him rises, like a huge precipice, a single tooth. In this case an idea of the dimensions given by Rabelais is conveyed. On the whole, however, the notion of attempting to realise such huge stature is not to be commended. Were Gargantua and Pantagruel of the size indicated, conversation between them and ordinary beings would scarcely be conceivable. The safest plan, then, in illustrations is to adopt a conventional standard of gianthood, and to show Pantagruel and his brood some twice or thrice the size of average humanity. Different opinions will be and are expressed as to the value of M. Chalon's designs. My own opinion is eminently favourable, and the book, which is in two volumes, constitutes the most sumptuous edition of "Rabelais" that has yet seen the light.

Lawrence & Bullen.

BOOK-PLATES.

HOUGH claiming a respectable antiquity as far as regards

is of modern growth. So early as the sixteenth century these marks of ownership are found, and through subsequent centuries men of high mark exercised their talents in producing them. Among those who have designed book-plates, or ex-libris, are Albrecht Dürer, Jost Amman, Faithorne, Cipriani, Bartolozzi, Boucher, Gravelot, Hogarth, Bewick, George Vertue, and Sir Robert Strange, besides many men of subsequent date, as Wm. Bell Scott, Caldecott, Mr. Walter Crane, and Mr. H. Stacy Marks. The collection of book-plates has now developed into what, in spite of Mr. Ruskin's protest, is called a mania. Only within the last couple of years has it appealed to a large public. In 1837 the Rev. Daniel Parsons published in the "Third Annual Report of the Oxford University Archaeological and Heraldic Society" what appears to have been the first contribution to English knowledge of book-plates. This article led to a proclamation by Mr. Parsons of his intention to write a History of Book-plates. This scheme remained unfulfilled, and it was not until 1880 that "A Guide to the Study of Book-plates," by the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, M.A., now Lord de Tabley, was issued. The appearance of this was opportune, and the book itself furnished the classification which subsequent writers are likely to employ. The next step was the formation of an Ex-Libris Society, which has already done good work, and now numbers some hundreds of members. Now comes the popular treatise, "English Book-plates : an Illustrated Handbook for Students of Ex-Libris," by Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A.,' best known for his work on fencing; a work brimming over with illustrations,' and supplying such knowledge exactly as the young student seeks to acquire. So numerous are the illustrations to this, that, for general purposes, it will be more useful than the more exemplary work of Lord de Tabley. The earliest gift-plate of Hildebrand Brandenburg, of Biberach, to the monastery of Ruxheim, which is practically the same as a bookplate, belongs to circa 1480. Following this comes the book-plate of Hector Pömer, last prior of St. Lawrence, Nuremberg, engraved from a design of Albrecht Dürer in 1521. Through the various stages, Tudoresque, Carolinian, Restoration, Queen Anne, and early Georgian style, down till to-day, the illustrations are carried, the latest being a fanciful design by Mr. Walter Crane for Mr. Clement Shorter.

'George Bell & Sons.

A

HERALDIC AND OTHER BOOK-PLATES.

CHIEF interest in book-plates is heraldic, and among

collectors there are those who confine themselves to those including armorial bearings. Such reserve is, however, scarcely to be commended. Many of the views of library interiors, those especially which include a portrait of the author seated among his books, constitute very desirable possessions. Many beautiful works of the kind, some of them not yet reproduced, were designed by the late Wm. Bell Scott. One of Lord de Tabley's book-plates, showing an interior with a goodly array of folios, is by that artist. Plates in the Chippendale or Rococo style, and the Festoon or later Georgian, have also an attraction of their own. To this order belongs the book-plate of David Garrick, once common in the market, and now altogether inaccessible. Occasionally these have too much of a mortuary appearance, that of Charles Dyer, 1800, being nothing more than cinerary urn. The nearest approach to the book-plate is the mark which printers and publishers place on their title-pages. Many of these are exceedingly pretty and fanciful, not a few of them being of a punning or canting description. That affixed by Messrs. Bell & Son to Mr. Castle's volume thus shows a large bell, with the anchor, the dolphin, and ornaments employed by the Alduses and other printers. For this reason I would recommend an ambitious candidate on the look-out for a book-plate to consult the "Marques Typographiques" of M. L. C. Silvestre (Paris: Adolphe Labitte). Many of these are better even than the designs of emblems which have been largely used. Some of those to early chroniclers are delightfully curious and quaint. Others, as those of Jehan Pettit, are equally artistic and elaborate. The two volumes, which contain over thirteen hundred designs, are a complete mine of suggestion. Trade marks. have also a certain amount of resemblance to book-plates. In the case of Hogarth, indeed, some confusion is thus caused. Charles Townley used as a book-plate a finely illustrated visiting card, reproducing the bust known as the Clytie, and some other sculptures. The employment of an address card was, of course, the simplest plan next to writing a name denoting possession. A whole series of rhymes urging the duty of restitution enjoyed currency early in the century, the most common and the least complimentary being

Steal not this book for fear of shame,

For here you see the owner's name.

It is not every one, or indeed many, who can, on book-plate or binding, imitate the magnanimity of Grolier, and speak of a book as for himself and his friends.