NORFOLK IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By W. G. Waters. (Jarrolds. 5s.
net.) Counties may seem artificial boundaries for literature, and when we examine the greater men to whom Norfolk has given birth or residence we can find no peculiarities to link them But even when he deals with the greater writers Mr. Waters justifies his book by his liveliness ; and we should remember that the selection of interesting tales demands much erudition. He begins with the Paston letters ; among notable men of letters who had intimate connexions with Norfolk are Bishop Corbet, Robert Greene, Sir Thomas Browne, Horace Walpole, Cowper, Paine, Godwin and Borrow ; and on each of them Mr. Waters' judgment is fresh and his anecdotes are amusing. But the most valuable part of his book is his history of the minor authors who could scarcely be noticed at length in any other form of literary history. Provincial literary society is well worth study ; the eccentricities of local celebrities made them often more interesting than men who were balanced and smoothed by their acquaintance with the metropolis or their communications with contemporary men of genius ; and sometimes we find among local groups a new fixation of character and purpose that gives a true contribution to our knowledge of men. Mr. Waters' short sketches are so success- , ful that we wish he -would appoint himself the local historian of letters in Norfolk, and write a larger volume devoted wholly to men of whom we should otherwise have little record.
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