Mr. Ashlar to Mrs. Torr.

Dear Madam,-I shall be pleased to make the designs which you suggest in your letter, upon hearing from you with regard to one or two points. In the first place I must say that to follow the lines of Mrs. Prole's cottage would not be very easy, as you limit me to £800, whereas Mrs. Prole's cottage cost £3000. Again, I should like to know something of the situation, whether on the flat or on a hillside, and the nature of the country-sand or chalk, for example.

Also the number

of rooms. Perhaps it would be as well if one of my clerks were to come down to Welwyn and talk the project over before we proceed farther. Awaiting your reply, believe me,

Yours faithfully,

Cyril Ashlar.

Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.
Bony's Hotel, Matlock.

Dear Mr. Ashlar,-Your letter is a great surprise to me. I had no idea that cottages could be so expensive as Mrs. Prole's seems to have been; nor do I understand how so much money was spent on it. I am sure my bedroom was bare enough. I always thought that cottages cost only a few hundreds. It would be charming to see your clerk, but at present I have nowhere to receive him, being but a bird of passage, and the situation of the little pied-à-terre is still undecided. I was thinking of Norfolk, near Sandringham. Could you not design a cottage that might be put up just anywhere, on any soil, and then when I had acquired the little plot we could adapt here and there to suit the case? There should be three reception rooms, six bedrooms (two with dressingrooms), and the usual offices. Of course I want a very sweet garden, but that hardly concerns you.

Yours truly,

Agatha Torr.

Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.

The Dove Cote, Weybridge. Dear Mr. Ashlar,-I have just come to this charming spot, where the country seems literally packed with nice people Lord and Lady Eglinton are my hostess's neighbors on the west, and Sir Morrowby Tew on the eastand I really think I shall buy a little plot here, on a southern slope, among the pine trees. The resin is so helpful to my asthma.

The house where I am staying has very pretty white walls and green slates. It was designed by Mr. Swallow. Don't you think you could give me something similar? Of course I think your system of roofing very delightful, and all that; but Mr. Swallow has certainly made a very attractive little home, and that is just what I want to check this grievous desire of wandering. Yours truly, Agatha Torr.

'Mr. Ashlar to Mrs. Torr.

(Extract)

Perhaps, if you admire Mr. Swallow's house so much, it would be better if you were to employ him. . . . Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.

"Ozonia," Bournemouth. Dear Mr. Ashlar,-How can you so I would not cruelly misunderstand? employ Mr. Swallow for the world. It is you, and you alone, who must design me my little home. Your letter distressed me so much that I left Weybridge at once and am now at Bournemouth. After all, perhaps a cottage by the sea is the true solution. My nerves are always so much better by the sea. My friend, Lady Gorly, has a little house here with a very attractive bay window, with seats in it, and a thatched roof. those for certain. to make inquiries

Please let me have
I am going at once
about a plot.
Yours truly,
Agatha Torr.

Mr. Ashlar to Mrs. Torr.

(Extract)

Only in a very secluded situation would thatch be desirable in any case, and I do not care for it even then. In order to have something to go upon I am preparing plans of what I consider a serviceable cottage of the kind which you asked for in your first letter, and these will reach you in a day or so...

Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.

"Ozonia," Bournemouth.

Dear Mr. Ashlar,-Chancing this morning to meet Mr. Terebith the poet, he was terror-stricken to hear that I intended to build. He spoke so feelingly of the horrors of scaffolding and heaps of bricks and mortar and the delights of an old manor house-perhaps even moated!-to which a few alterations could be made, that I drove to the station and bought Country Life, and have found in that the very thing I want. I have written about it at once. So do not go on with the plans. I am so much obliged for all your kindness.

Yours very truly,
Agatha Torr.

Mr. Ashlar to Mrs. Torr. Dear Madam,-I regret to say that your letter came too late to stop the plans, which were posted to you last night. Believe me, Yours faithfully, Cyril Ashlar.

Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.
Burke's Private Hotel,
Dorking.

Dear Mr. Ashlar,-The cost of the old house in Kent is so prohibitive that I am resolved to go back to my original idea, especially as a very interesting Irish doctor who is staying here tells me that old houses are always damp.

Mrs. Torr to Mr. Ashlar.

Hans Crescent Hotel, S.W. Dear Mr. Ashlar,-I have now finally decided, on the advice of my brotherin-law, whose judgment is very sound, to pitch my tent near Bath, which he says is both gay and healthy, and surrounded by very attractive country. As this is so far inland you could do away with some of the length and lowness of the cottage, which give it perhaps rather a squalid air. The loggia I fear must also go, as there are few prospects.

It is generally agreed in England among those who, from their connection with the trade. are in the best position to know, that 1904 was not a very good book year. There are differences of opinion as to the reason but none as to the fact.

The London Times reports that the record of 1904 as regards the quality and importance of the books published was one of mediocrity. Of all the books entered in its weekly lists and of those reviewed in its columns, numbering altogether about 5,700, there are none of outstanding interest and importance, none which gives distinction to the year, such as Morley's "Gladstone" gave to 1903.

Samuel Johnson's "Prayers and Meditations" have been republished with an introduction by Mr. Augustine Birrell. These were first published

during the year following Johnson's death and were re-issued half a dozen times during the first half of the nineteenth century, but only twice since, at Lichfield in 1860, and with Dr. Birkbeck Hill's "Johnsonian Miscellanies" in 1897. This admirable little book, according to Boswell, "evinces beyond all his compositions for the public, and all the eulogies of his friends and admirers, the sincere virtue and piety of Johnson."

T. Y. Crowell & Co. have added Julius Caesar to their First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays. The editorial work, as in the other volumes of the series, is done by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, who edited the "Camberwell Browning." This edition not only appeals to students of Shakespeare by its exact reproduction in volumes of moderate size and cost of the original First Folio text, but the typography and press work, which are from the De Vinne Press, are of the clearest and daintiest order imaginable. The aids to the study of the play include literary illustrations, a glossary, variorum readings and selected criticisms.

Why and how Japan is succeeding in the war with Russia has quite taken the place of all other Far Eastern questions in the public mind. In the early stages of the war the situation was very different: then there were only a few who admitted even to themselves that Japan could make any, much less a good, showing against her gigantic adversary. After the naval successes, it was admitted that at sea Japan could more than hold her own; but the unknown possibilities of the military forces on land were regarded with doubt. The land campaign has, however, been conclusive enough to convince even the most obdurate adherents of Russia that for Russia the struggle is hopeless, and that all that remains is an honorable withdrawal by the Tsar and his Government of their former demands. There still are to be found a few who, pointing to the great resources-largely undeveloped-and the vast population-almost wholly uneducated-of Russia in Europe and in Asia, declare that nothing can ultimately avail against such power. But with

this minority it is not necessary to deal. The future must demonstrate even to them that the enormously powerful and aggressive Russia, fit bugbear for any nation, must be stripped of her military panoply and given over to the eduIcation of her peoples to learn wherein lies a nation's real force. If they be true friends of Russia, if they feel with the Russian people, they will rejoice that there is some hope of the Russian nation fulfilling its destiny in its true way, unhampered by the fetters imposed upon it by a venial bureaucracy and an intolerant Church. That Russia has a great future in store for her no one can deny, and only by her own action is the day postponed when she shall take the first step along that path of education which alone can lead her to ultimate greatness. Without education Russia can but be an inverted pyramid, without stability, without any promise of solidarity. When the head of the Russian nation, be he autocratic Tsar or constitutional monarch, can look over his land and see on every side the children of the