GEORGE JOHN WHYTE-MELVILLE1821-1878

G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE

Although as an authority on matters sporting Whyte-Melville stands alone, it is yet impossible, with the best will in the world and with all the respect due to his personal chivalry and courage, to regard him in therôleof novelist as anything but absurd.

His books, where they deal with the science and the joys of hunting, have the vivid appeal that only delighted conviction can give; but as fiction, as readings of life adequately expressed in English prose, they are negligible and often ludicrous.

Whyte-Melville, the sportsman, is a figure of dignity and inspiration; Whyte-Melville, the social novelist, is Ouida in breeches. That the breeches are of perfect cut may not disguise the conventional swagger of the legs they cover. The ways trodden by this author in his search for character and incident are the exclusive ways of Victorian landlordism. Their pavements are thronged with fair ladies and brave gentlemen, while in the roadway crowd the lower orders—some mildly criminal, some a little comic, but the majority joyous in their privilege to serve the brilliant purpose of their betters. The antics of these humble creatures are watched with kindly patronage by those to whom wealth and pleasure are a normal birthright. Conversing among themselves, heartily but with elegance, the Guardsmen and squirelings of the fashionable clubs find time to exchange gracious greeting with their poorer neighbours, whose uncouth speech strikes quaintly pleasant on their cultured ears. An instruction is given; half a sovereign changes hands; a cap is dutifully touched. God willed that of His creatures some be rich and others poor; let the former bear themselves honourably and remember (when not otherwise engaged) the duties of their station; letthe latter be happy in the lot to which Providence has called them.

But genial condescension to his dependants is not the only or even the main business of the Whyte-Melville gentleman. His life has two absorbing interests—horses and ladies. To a point these interests merge. With identicalexpertisehe takes the points of a fine girl and of a blood mare. The former in her drawing-room, the latter in her stable, await in gleaming beauty his appreciative caress. At their point of ultimate usefulness, however, femininity and horseflesh part company. The latter is the hero's ally, the former his quarry in the chase; and while his adventures on horseback are told with the zest and knowledge of real authority, his exploits in lady-killing have the tedious unreality of a tale only half imagined and not a quarter lived.

It is for the falseness of his emotional writing that Whyte-Melville challenges comparison with Ouida. And, the comparison made, one is bound to concede victory to the latter. Both deal in the passions of the nobly born; but while the woman has at least the courage of bad taste, the man, fettered by good form, achieves no taste at all. Whyte-Melville's novels, likeHamlet, are full of quotations. He is the father of novelette; the wellspring ofcliché. His lovely ladies are not women nor his gallants men: they are the dummies of suburban melodrama, exquisitely gowned, faultlessly tailored, mouthing the phrases of drawing-room passionates, but, even as dummies, failing to achieve that semblance of gilded sin that is their only purpose.

Nevertheless, despite their ineptitude, the books of Whyte-Melville compel a curious and obscure respect. Respect for what it were hard to say, for his written word is his own deadliest accuser. Sentences might be chosen almost at random from the novels of social life that would prove his possession of every fault possible to a novelist and to a writer of prose. And yet, through the screen of their fatuity, one has glimpses of the personality of the author himself—a personality at which one may makemock, but only with affection. This country gentleman turned novelist was an upright, guileless creature, hard riding, generous hearted, as unconscious of his innate snobbery as of his natural modesty, conventional because unaware of any world or school of thought beyond the narrow limits of his own. His pictures of England are as dull and as unreal as the pretty garden scenes in water-colour produced by county ladies to this day; but both the painter of these lifeless pictures and the comfortable amateurs responsible for horrid views of moorland and herbaceous border command a sort of wistful admiration. There is something so clean and easy and contented in the mentality from which these books and drawings spring that, if only it were not so stupid, so impenetrable to variety of idea, its passing might well be looked on with regret. Whyte-Melville's qualities, like those of the type he represents, are more obscure than his defects. The class of country gentleman to which he personally belonged is rapidly disappearing; when it is gone we shall wonder a little perplexedly why we miss it. It was so easy to ridicule, so pathetically a target for mockery and persecution. In our greater wisdom we have shot it to pieces, riddling its obtuse selfishness, its bland complacency, with the bullets of reforming zeal. But something fine will have perished with it, something indefinable but leaving a sense of gap, to remind us that destruction is never quite the discriminating triumph that iconoclasts claim for it in advance.

This, then, is one contemporary view of Whyte-Melville's novels, whose only demonstrable virtue is their sportsmanship. One may quote fromMarket Harborough, fromRiding Recollections, even from the social stories, passages of speed and exhilaration, passages of unaffected wisdom and perception, descriptive of the hunting that, next to honour, he loved best of all that life could offer. In opposition may be printed page after page of stilted rhetoric, mawkish humour, the falsest of sentiment, the most wanton elaboration of nounand adjective. But after all quotation is done and a balance struck, there will still remain the elusive quality that gave character to the class from which the author came, an essence of breeding and tradition that no phrasing can crystallize, that vanishes in the moment of its expression. For this spiritual quality Whyte-Melville is admirable; for his literary faults he is unreadable. Such, in a nutshell, is the judgment of one reader who cannot excuse a book stupidity and pretentiousness for the sake of isolated passages of hunting lore, but seeks to appreciate in the character of a social generation that is fading fast, a distinction that to all seeming will fade with it.

There are, however, readers of other kinds, and for their sake and because among our grandmothers and our aunts the stories of Whyte-Melville were avidly admired, a summary classification of his books shall be attempted.

He began as a writer of autobiographies, of the part-fashionable, part-sporting, part-knockabout kind, the tradition of which came down from the eighteenth century, through Frederick Marryat, to a dozen writers of the hard-drinking, riotous forties.Digby Grand(1853) andTilbury Nogo(1854) are essentially novels of this type, while inKate Coventry(1856) the author merely adapts the recipe to the needs of a girl heroine.The Interpreter(1858) strikes a note of its own, for the scenes in the Crimea and in Turkey were drawn from the writer's experience and give a convincing picture of the period and its happenings. Apart from them, however, the book is an ordinary first-person record of the social wanderings of a young Englishman of family.

Between the second and the third of the books above mentioned had appearedGeneral Bounce(1855), a transitional novel, not wholly apart from those that preceded it, but halfway to a place among the stories of contemporary love-making and sport, of which the author was to produce a lengthy list. These novels of English society contain much of the most repellent ofWhyte-Melville's work, although many have refreshing interludes of hunting and scenes on the racecourse or in the stable that will endear them to specialists in the genre, if they cannot reconcile others to the artificial tedium of the love stories and the clumsy contriving of the plots. Here are the titles of the social novels:

General Bounce(1855),Good for Nothing(1861),The Brookes of Bridlemere(1864),The White Rose(1868),M or N(1869),Contraband(1871),Satanella(1872),Uncle John(1874),Roy's Wife(1878),Black but Comely(1879).

General Bounce(1855),

Good for Nothing(1861),

The Brookes of Bridlemere(1864),

The White Rose(1868),

M or N(1869),

Contraband(1871),

Satanella(1872),

Uncle John(1874),

Roy's Wife(1878),

Black but Comely(1879).

Next in numerical importance are the costume novels, beloved of an earlier generation, but to the critical modern reader the poorest of poor stuff, so compact of Wardour Street, of hollow sentiment, and of forced,démodéattitude as to be intolerable.

Holmby House(1860)

(A tale of the Civil War with a strong bias in favour of the Cavalier party),

The Queen's Maries(1862)

(A romantic tribute to Mary, Queen of Scots),

The Gladiators(1863)

(A novel of Rome and Judæa at the time of Christ),

Cerise(1866)

(An eighteenth-century tale),

Sarchedon(1871)

(A novel centring round the figure of Semiramis),

Sister Louise(1876)

(A novel of seventeenth-century France),

Rosine(1877)

(A novel of the French Revolution).

There remain two books of purely sporting significance, andKaterfelto.

Market Harborough(1861), the pride of the Pytchley, is hardly a novel. It is a string of hunting and horse-dealing episodes into which Whyte-Melville threw all that he had of science and of enthusiasm.Riding Recollections(1878) are what their name implies. It is not for any but the expert to criticize these books, which are held in some quarters to be essential textbooks to a hunting education.Katerfelto(1875) will also escape comment here, but for a different reason. Among my childhood memories this Exmoor tale glows adored, uncriticized. How will it read to-day? To put it to the test frightens me. I dare not open it.

EDITIONES PRINCIPESFICTION, POETRY, ESSAYS

HORACE:Odes, Epodes and Carmen SæculareTranslated into English verse byG. J. Whyte MelvilleEsq., late Coldstream Guards. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers Hall Court. 1850. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. (viii) + 120. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

DIGBY GRAND: An Autobiography. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1853. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 303 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 312 + (4). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements, paged 1-4, occupy pp. (313) to (316).

Red cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in February, 1853. The story appeared serially in “Fraser's Magazine.”

TILBURY NOGO: OrPassages in the Life of an Unsuccessful Man. By the author ofDigby Grand. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1854. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 310 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 348.

No half-titles. Brown cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1854. The story appeared serially in “The Sporting Magazine.”

GENERAL BOUNCE: OrThe Lady and The Locusts. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1855. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 296 + (4). Advertisement ofDigby Grandoccupies verso of half-title. Publishers' advertisements, numbered 1 to 4, occupy pp. (297) to (300).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 278 + (2). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (279) to (280).

Pale brown cloth, gilt. Pale brick end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1855 this book was actually published in December, 1854. The story appeared serially in “Fraser's Magazine.”

KATE COVENTRY: An Autobiography. Edited byG. J. Whyte Melville, author ofDigby Grand. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1856. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Advertisement of books by the same author occupies p. (323) and publishers' list p. (324). Scarlet ribbed cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chalk-blue end-papers.

Note—This book was published in October, 1856.

[1857]

THE ARAB'S RIDE TO CAIRO: A Legend of the Desert. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Illustrated and Illuminated by Mrs. Wolfe Murray. Seton & Mackenzie, Edinburgh. Houlston & Stoneman, London. 1 vol. Fcap. 4to (6⅞ × 8¼). Pp. 14. Red cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold, or green morocco, full gilt, tooled in gold and black. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This volume was published in January, 1857.

(ii) It is hardly a book in the ordinary sense, consisting, as it does, of 14 pp. of stout card printed on one side only. Each page is printed in three or more colours, vaguely after the style of an illuminated MS. Pseudo-gothic lettering is used throughout, and the whole volume is typical of the Victorian table book at its most ornate.

THE INTERPRETER: A Tale of the War. ByG. J. Whyte Melville, Author ofDigby Grand,General Bounceetc. etc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand. 1858. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝). Pp. iv + 431 + (1). No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in black, uniform withKate Coventry. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in January, 1858.

HOLMBY HOUSE: A Tale of Old Northants. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Author ofDigby Grand,The Interpreteretc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand, 1860. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 325 + (3). Pp. (i) and (ii) precede frontispiece and form technically a half-title, but p. (i) is not printed as such. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (327) and (328).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 344 + (4). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements, numbered 1 to 4, occupy pp. (345) to (348).

Frontispiece in coloured lithograph to Vol. I., printed separately. Red-brown cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in March, 1860.

MARKET HARBOROUGH: OrHow Mr. Sawyer went to the Shires. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1861. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. viii + 312. Olive-green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in April, 1861.

GOOD FOR NOTHING: OrAll Down Hill. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Author ofDigby Grand,The Interpreter,Holmby Houseetc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand. 1861. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 298 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p. (299).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 265 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (267) and (268).

No half-titles. Maroon cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in December, 1861.

MARKET HARBOROUGH: OrHow Mr. Sawyer Went to the Shires. 4th Edition. INSIDE THE BAR: OrSketches at Soakington. By the author ofDigby Grandetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1862. 1 vol. Cr.8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. iv + 393 + (3). Buff cloth, printed, in red and black. White end-papers, of which the first inside front is printed with publishers' advertisements.

Note—This volume is the first edition ofInside the Bar. It was published in April, 1862.

THE QUEEN'S MARIES: A Romance of Holyrood. ByG. J. Whyte Melville, Author ofDigby Grand,The Interpreter,Holmby House,Good for Nothingetc. London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand. 1862. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 304.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 254 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p. (255), and 8 pp. advertisements, printed on text paper but numbered 1 to 8, are bound in at end.

No half-titles, but in Vol. II. 2 pp. blank precede title. Violet cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1862.

THE GLADIATORS: A Tale of Rome and Judæa. ByG. J. Whyte Melville, author ofDigby Grand,The Interpreter,Holmby House,The Queen's Mariesetc. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green. 1863. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 324.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 305 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 291 + (1).

No half-titles. Red embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Pale chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was announced for publication by Parker in November, 1863. In January, 1864, it appeared over Longmans' imprint, but dated 1863. Whether any copies are in existence with a Parker imprint I do not know; if so they are the real first edition.

1864

THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Author ofThe Gladiators,Digby Grant(sic),The Interpreter,Holmby House,The Queen's Mariesetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1864. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 307 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., and dated October, 1864, bound in at end.

No half-titles. Red cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published on October 29, 1864.

CERISE: A Tale of the Last Century. ByG. J. Whyte Melville, author ofThe Gladiators,Digby Grand,The Brookes of Bridlemereetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 309 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 301+ (3).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 318 + (2).

No half-titles. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale cream end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in April, 1866.

(ii)Cerisewas rapidly reprinted, and it is curious to report that copies of thethirdedition exist with publishers' catalogue at the end of Vol. III. dated March, 1866—i.e., prior to the book'sfirstpublication. The first edition contained no catalogue.

THE WHITE ROSE. ByG. J. Whyte Melville, author ofCerise,The Gladiators,Brookes of Bridlemereetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 262 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 263 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 252.

Red-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in February, 1868.

BONES AND I: OrThe Skeleton at Home. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Author ofThe Gladiators,Cerise,Digby Grandetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. iv + 287 + (1). No half-title. Brown cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1869.

SONGS AND VERSES. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vii + (i) + 136. Errata slip inserted at p. 1. Dark red cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in September, 1869.

(ii) The author revised and added to the poems in this book on several occasions after its original publication. Strictly speaking, any new edition which contains even one fresh poem may rank as a first edition, and collectors of Whyte-Melville, who are also purists, may therefore be advised not to pass over any one of the first six or seven editions ofSongs and Verseswithout satisfying themselves that no fresh matter distinguishes it from its predecessors.

M. OR N. “Similia Similibus Curantur.” ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. Author ofDigby Grand,Cerise,The Gladiatorsetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 312 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 313 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (315) (316).

Light brown (or brown) embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published on October 15, 1869. I do not know which shade of binding is the earlier.

CONTRABAND: OrA Losing Hazard. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. Author ofDigby Grand,Cerise,The White Roseetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 307 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 281 + (1).

Bright blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—Although this book is dated 1871, it was actually published in December, 1870.

SARCHEDON: A Legend of the Great Queen. ByG. J. Whyte Melville. Author ofThe Gladiators,Holmby House, etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 289 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 270.

Vol. III. pp. (vi) + 251 + (1).

Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1871.

SATANELLA: A Story of Punchestown. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1872. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 260.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 267 + (1).

Lithographed frontispiece to each volume printed separately and one other similar illustration in vol. ii. Red (or maroon) cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1872. I do not know which shade of binding is the earlier.

THE TRUE CROSS: A Legend of the Church. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. Author ofThe Gladiators,Sarchedonetc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (iv) + 241 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated January, 1873, bound in at end. Green (or chocolate) cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in March, 1873.

(ii) Copies in red-brown cloth, gilt, without decorative blocking, are of later issue, although they sometimes contain a catalogue of the original date. Which shade of the original binding is the earlier, I do not know.

UNCLE JOHN: A Novel. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. Author ofMarket Harborough,The Gladiators,Kate Coventry,Satanellaetc. etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1874. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 267 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 236.

Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 218 + (2).

Green cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in August, 1874.

KATERFELTO: A Story of Exmoor. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville, author ofDigby Grand,Cerise,Uncle Johnetc. With Illustrations by ColonelHope Crealocke, C.B. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1875. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅝ × 8⅝). Pp. (iv) + 291 + (1). No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 34 pp., dated November, 1874, bound in at end. Twelve illustrations in lithograph, printed separately. Dark red cloth, blocked in gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1875, this book was actually published in December, 1874.

SISTER LOUISE: OrThe Story of a Woman's Repentance. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville, Author ofDigby Grand,The Gladiators,Katerfelto. With Illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1876. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅜ × 8⅝). Pp. xii + 268. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1875, bound in at end. Eight illustrations, roughly lithographed. Green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.

Notes—(i) Although dated 1876, this book was actually published in December, 1875.

(ii) Copies without catalogue and with yellow end-papers are probably of a subsequent issue.

ROSINE. By J. G. [sic]Whyte-Melville, Author ofCerise,Katerfeltoetc. etc. With illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1877. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¾ × 8⅝). Pp. (vi) + 266. Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., dated December, 1876, bound in at end. Eight illustrations. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Very dark green end-papers.

Notes—(i) Although dated 1877, this book was actually published in December, 1876.

(ii) Copies in maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in black but without other decoration on side save a simple rectangular frame are of later issue.

1878

RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. With Illustrations by Edgar Giberne. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7⅞). Pp. xii + 251 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated November, 1877, bound in at end. Eight illustrations, being photographs from drawings pasted on to thin card. Dark brickish-red cloth, blocked in black and gold. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in April, 1878.

ROY'S WIFE: A Novel. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 299 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 310.

Olive-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1878.

BLACK BUT COMELY: OrThe Adventures of Jane Lee. ByG. J. Whyte-Melville. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 303 + (i).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 304.

Vol. III. pp. viii + 292 + (4). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (293) to (296). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1878, bound in at end.

A four-page slip of publishers' advertisements should be found inserted between the front end-papersof Vol. I. This slip predates the catalogue in Vol. III. Blue-grey cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in January, 1879.

THE BONES AT ROTHWELL: A Lecture delivered by the late CaptainWhyte Melville, being an account of the remarkable bone cavern beneath Rothwell Church. Price 1d. Rothwell, printed by Ed. Chamberlain, 3 Market Place. (Quotation from Gray'sElegyheads title-page and wrapper.) 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. 16 pp. White paper wrappers, printed in black. Outside back wrapper occupied by printer's advertisements.

Note—This is the text of a lecture delivered by Whyte-Melville on January 3, 1862, to the Moulton Religious and Useful Knowledge Society, and printed in the “Northampton Mercury” for January 11 of the same year. When first the pamphlet above described was issued I cannot be certain, but R. B. Wallis, in a booklet published in 1888, and entitledAll About the Rothwell Bones, speaks of the lecture as obtainable in pamphlet form from Chamberlan of Rothwell. Certainly, therefore, the publication predates 1888, and I have ventured above on the date of the year following Whyte-Melville's death because it seems possible that the lecture was first issued in pamphlet form to combine the interest in the Rothwell Bones with that likely to be created in Whyte-Melville by his decease. The clumsiness with which Whyte-Melville is spoken of as “the late,” but at the same time given the rank of “Captain” instead of that of “Major,” implies a hasty reprint from the file of the “Northampton Mercury,” by someone aware of his death but careless of the military rank to which he finally attained.

The colour of the paper wrapper varies with different issues. In addition to a white copy, as above described, I have seen one in a pale yellow cover.

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