18 APRIL 1903, Page 23

The Book of Ballynoggin. By L. C. Alexander. (Grant Richards.

6s.)—" Ballynoggin" is situated in what we may call "Ould Ireland," a little altered, it is true, from the country of Harry Lorrequer and Charles O'Malley, but yet not difficult to recognise as the same. The first story, "The Elder," is off the line—the Presbyterian elder who turns out to be a retired pirate might be of any country or none—but the "Old Blood," which comes second, is genuinely Irish. Mike of Baleila, who all unwittingly makes up an hereditary feud between two neighbours, and then laments that "it'll be mighty dull, with sorra a quarrel or a grayvance," is quite racy of the soil. There is a touch of the serious now and then; the best of this strain is "That Little Cad," a very striking little sketch.