Literary Gossip.

LITERARY GOSSIP .

MR . William Smith , F . S . A ., announces as m active preparation the second volume of " Old Yorkshire , " the initial issue of wliich work was recently so well received . It will contain a further budget of antiquarian and historical information anent the county of broad acres , from the pens of competent writers , including Llewellyn Jewitt , F . S . A . ; J . P . Briscoe , F . R . H . S . ; Rev . F . W . Jackson , M . A . ; J . 0 . Bailey , F . S . A . ; Thomas B . Trowsdale ; Frederick Ross , F . R . H . S . ; G . W . TomlinsonF . S . A . ; Rev . R . V . Taylor ; William Andrews

, , F . R . H . S . ; and many others . The Rev . James Payne , M . A ., Canon of York , Secretary of the Surtees Society , will write an introductory chapter , and the volume is to be dedicated to Lord Houghton . There will be many illustrations inters 23 erged throughout the letterpress , and a copious set of indices is being compiled by Mr . Trowsdale . The volumes of "Old Yorkshire " cannot fail to be recognised as an acquisition to an archaeologist ' s library . The editoris

, doing his part of the work with much judgment and skill , his contributors are ably seconding him , and tho publisher ' s share in the production is performed in a most commendable manner . The work is issued by subscription , and the names of persons desirous of obtaining copies may be forwarded to Mr . Wm . Smith , Osborne House , Morley . Longmans , Green and Co . are the publishers .

An excellent illustrated story , describing the lovely route of the Caledonian Railway Company through " The Western Hi ghlands , " has just been completed in the Saturday issues of Society . Mr . Horace Weir is the author , and so well does he do his work that the reader mi ght almost imagine the picturesque panoramas of mountain and loch depicted so appreciatively were in reality passing before him .

Mr . Oscar Wilde , whose aesthetic vagaries have furnished a theme for the burlesques of comic opera writers , contributors to Punch , and comic cartoonists of every rank , from Du Mauri er downwards , for many months past , has brought out a book of his erratic verse . Hitherto he has contented himself with tiie transitory fame to be derived from the publication of his " poems " in the pages of Pan and other society serialsbut now adorers of the transcendentality of

, Mr . Wilde ' s genius may obtain a complete collection of his ethereal conceptions in all the glory of parchment binding for . half-a-guinea . The imagery of the aesthetic poet is characteristic of him , being certainly of the Wilde-street order . Here is a specimen of our pet of the drawing-room at his best : —

BEQUIESCAT . Tread lightly , she is near Under the snow , Speak gently , she can hear The daisies grow . All her bright golden haiiy Tarnished with rust ,

She that was young and fair Fallen to dust . Lily-white , white as snow , She hardly knew She was a woman , so Sweetly she grew . Coffin-board , heavy stone Lie on her breast ; I vex my heart alone , She is at rest .