In Clarissa's Day. By Sarah Tytler. (Chatto and Windus. 6s.)—There
is the very minimum of story in this novel. There is an unsuccessful attack by highwaymen, a rescue from a burning house, and an escape from the unwelcome attentions of "sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine" ; and the whole is finished up with a couple of weddings. On the other hand, we have plenty of character scenes. We are introduced to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and to the Duke himself in his dotage. And when the two heroines pay a visit to London they see everybody, —Alexander Pope, Lady Mary Montagu (who persuades them to be inoculated), Lord and Lady Masham, Caroline of Anspach, and George II. (then Prince of Wales). All this picturing wants a gift of more scrupulous accuracy than "Sarah Tytler " seems to possess. Perhaps the strangest error is the hearing among other news at Oxford of some one "who had taken a first." This may be about 1720, and classes were not invented till 1801. Travellers from Oxford to London never could have gone by way of Summer- town ; and Mapledurham is certainly not "near Windsor." Reading lies between, and Reading is fourteen miles distant from Windsor. •
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