LITERARY NOTES.

! — "John Oliver Hobbes" is 'to deal with i Nonconformity in her next novel. Mrs Craigie's grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. — The sum received by Mr Rudyard Kipling for the* English and American rights of his new serial story, "Kern of the Reshti," is said to be, £4000. — Mrs Reginald Wilberforce is printing in the Pilot a number of hitherto unpublished letters from ~ Cardinal Newman to the late Bishop Wilberforoo. —Mr Harold Gorst has written a humorous story — it is a burlesque of adventure — - under the title "Farthest South." Messrs Greenan will publish it. „ — Miss Katharine Tynan has written a story .of Irish country life under^ the title "Three Fair Maids; or, The Burkes or Derrymore."- 1 Messrs Blackie will publish it. —Mr I. ZangwilPs novel, "The Mantle of' Elijah," now appearing serially in Harper's Magazine, was to be published in book form' this,month. , It will be illustrated. — "Life As I Have Found-It" is to be the title of the Rev.- Dr Joseph Parker's next volume, which will have, as a matter of course, a strong autobiographic flavour. — Two new 'novels -will be shortly issued j 'by Skeffington & Sons — "The Ohase of the Ruby/ by Mr- Richard Marsh, and a story of mystery and adventure in Egypt called "The Order of Isis," by Mr James Dagnall Stubbs. , — A new volume has been added to Macmillan's Golden Treasury series, containing a translation of Cicero's famous discourses j "On Old' Age and on Friendship,'" with an introduction by the translator, Mr E. S. Shuckburgh. — Miss Arabella Kenealy, the daxighter of the late Dr Kenealy, Q. 0., who has practised as a doctor of medicine in London, is to issue a new novel through Hutchinson and Co. called "Charming Renee." Her first novel was "Dr Janet of Harley street." —Mr G. A. Henty, one of the very few writers for boys who succeeds in holding his public, has completed his visual trilogy for the winter season. One of 'his stories is to be called "With Buller in Natal," and the others deal with Garibaldi and the Irish Brigade of the reign of Louis XIV. — Mr John Murray's experiment with 'new cloth-bound fiction at half a crown net will be watched with much' interest. Three volumes have now been issued, "The Cpmplcat Bachelor," by Oliver Onions ; "A Gift from the Grave," by Edith Wharton ; and "Monica Grey," by Lady Hely-Hutchinson. ' — One of the features of the iil-et number of the Lady's Magazine, which Messrs Pearson will publish in January, is to be an article - by the late Mrs W. -E. Gladstone. - Madame Sarah Grand will contribute a biographical article, "What I Remember of My School Day?," and Mi Justin Huntly McCarthy is v<riting a' series of short stories for tlie magazine. — All the readers of "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" will rejoice to. hear of a new work from that very pleasant pen, though this time it is designed foi children. "An

April Baby's Book of Tunes' 1 is written for and about the three little girls who made such attractive figures in the earlier books. "Elizabeth," whoever she is, can do children to perfection. — Those who take a special interest in India may care to bear of a volume on native South India life which Messrs Longmans are to publish. The author is Mr Stanley P. Price, a member of the Indian Civil Service. It is a far cry from India to St. Kilda, but the same publishers announce a volume dealing with this island. It is by Mr Norman Heathcote, who knows St. Kilda well. There will be illustrations of its people, its scenery, and its sea birds. Indeed, the book will in some measure be a guide to the natural history of St. Kilda. — The fac-simile of "The Germ," which Mr Elliot Stock is preparing to issue, will reproduce the four separate numbers of ths magazine exactly as they were issued in the buff -covers by the P. RB. These, with an extended preface on the literary history of "The Germ," by William Michael Rossetti, in a separate section, will be issued in a case of suitable design, so that the reader will be able to see -the exact aspect of the work as it first saw the light. — A new and revised edition of Mr J. E. Harting's Handbook of British Birds is announced by Mr Nimmo. This work shows the distribution of the resident and migratory species of the British Isles, and includes an index to the records of the rarer visitants. Since the appearance of the first edition the author has carefully and continuously noted fresh facts and additional observations contributed by ornithologists throughout the country for the advancement of the knowledge of bird life. Every record of sufficient interest since the time of Willughby, the f atfier of British ornithology, is chronologically noted. The volume has been illustrated by a series of 35 plates in colour, from original drawings by the late Professor Se'hlegel. —Mr Heinemann will shortly publish a travel book which describes "The First Ascent of Mount Kenya." This great mountain, twin to Kilimanjaro, as somebody has called it, lies immediately under the equator. Last year Mr H. J. Mackinder led 1 an expedition from Nair ■ Obi, on the Uganda railway, to the foot of Mount Kenya. A month was spent at high levels, above the forest 'zone of the mountain, and then the peak was

climbed, after two unsuccessful a,ttempts,^T)y a party vl ich included two Ai'ijme guides. iNo provious expedition had succeeded in c rnbing Mount Kenya, or m obtaining a coinpiete knowledge of it. Mr ' 3**Ocl>'der and his colleagues mapped no fe<*-«* than 15 glacifrs upon it, and tf-*y dis«r*er«d new mammals and birds isolated tn it* Alpine peaks. Mr Mackinder now telb the story of his experienoos in a book wheih will be illustrated with many photographs. - — "The Life of Professor Kuxley," by h'.t soo Mr Leomrd Huxley, will be published/ shortly _by M vsrs Macoiillan. It will bo looked f< rward % with keen interest, for, as the biog-npher j>»tly observes, Huxley was much more than a simple contributor, however illustrious, to natural science ; much more even than a lucid and profound thinker. His style reflected a temperament of great force and originality; and the "son's book is not a summary of the father's contributions to scierce nor of his philosophic views, but rather a su'y of the man himself, of his character and temperament, and the circumstances under which his various works were begun and completed. So far as possible, the story is told by original letters and byextracts from Huxley's correspondence, which 1 ' was, however, by no means voluminous. — About five years ago or so Mr Harold P. Dorm, of 79 Regent* street, Leeds, picked' up, at an auction sale in Briggate, a'battered old volume on Hebrew customs. . He .gave; 2s 6d for the book, and until quite recently had no idea of the value, of his purchase. The book has been examined by_ several experts both nVLeeds and in'Londbn, and has ■been pronounced to be • worth at least £500. One Leeds authority, a Jewish minister/ even went so far as to say its value was represented by £1000. The volume it&elf is really three books bound in one — a work, on Rbman antiquities; "Seven Books of the Attick Antiquities," and, most > valuable of all, a work with along title on Hebrew cere., monies. The book is by one Thomas God--nyn. 8.D., whose preface is dated 1624, while the date of issue of this particular edition, the eleventh, is 1678. The volume forms a complete Compendium of-, Hebrew customs,- and is compiled largely, from authorities whoso works are' now lost beyond recovery. ' Mr Dorm's possession was to be offered at auo tion at the well-known Stevenson's au»tio£ rooms' in London. / *