Pat ricia of the Hills. By Charles Kennett Burrow. (Lawrence and
Bullen. 6s.)—This is a " neo-Irish " story, of the type of which " Hurrish " is a well-known representative. It is the Ireland of Land Leagues and Coercion Acts and proclaimed meetings that we read about in its pages. Obviously this new kind has come to stay, and the critic may spare the expression of useless regret. There is much vigorous drawing in Mr. Burrow's pictures of life and manners. The men seem to us better than the women. Patricia is but a nominal heroine ; we have to take her very much on trust; and Miss Blake and Mary Shannon are even more shadowy. We have two complaints to make. All the incidents in good fiction should be typical; so regarded, tho scene where the troops act against the mob is grossly unjust. The riot, says the narrator, " could easily have been quelled by two or three vigorous charges." Would that method, does he think, have ended with the loss of two lives only ? He says, again, that he is "no Galahad." Such a remark is probably merely made to " show off," but it is none the less a piece of execrable taste.
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