Uncle Clive. By "C. A. M. W." 1 vol. (Newby.)—The
effect of this story is as if Mr. John Parry and the Warden of Saekville College, or some other High-Church luminary, should combine to give an entertain- ment. The scene of the story is laid in a country village, and the most prominent characters are the wife of the doctor, who is just the sort of person one hears of at the Gallery of Illustration, and lisps and says "0 dear !" all through the volume, and an invalid lady, who, with three hard sisters and a numismatic brother, inhabits the grand house. This lady holds very High-Church views, sighs over the dream, which she has ceased to inch:Lige in long ago in these under-parsoned days, of "being often comforted by priestly counsel and frequent priestly minis- trations," and only wishes to live long enough to see an old priory restored to ecclesiastical uses. Attached to these leading personages are introduced three young ladies, two good and one the reverse, whose love affairs constitute the story. The lovers are merely lay figures, and the whole interest centres in the first-named ladies, who have, however, as a foil a certain old maid, with the appropriate name of Brown, who dabbles in science, and does not believe in ghost stories. The effect is curious of alternating between pages of solemn preaching mixed with High-Church prettinesses and the farcical talk of "0 dear !" as the doctor's wife is facetiously called by her husband. Those who think they would like this had better read the story ; there is no other fault in it, and the morality is unimpeachable.
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