18 DECEMBER 1875, Page 20

The Squire's Legacy. By Mary Cecil Hay. (Hurst and Blackett.)—

As we shall recommend our readers to read this novel for themselves, we shall not do them the ill-service or the author the injustice of describing the plot at length. There is sufficient mystery in the story

to sustain the interest evenly and without effort through the three volumes ; the people are nearly all of them pleasant and natural. We fancy that the sympathies of most readers will be with the young squire, rather than with the romantic and somewhat feminine young lawyer who, by virtue of his being the heroine's accepted lover, is, we suppose, the rightful hero of the tale ; we do not wonder that although Doris never wavers in allegiance to Kenneth, sho occasionally yields to the charm of Scot Monktou's chivalrous affection. How everybody who deserves to be happy is made so, including the readers of the story, who will be sure to see very early in the story whom Doris ought,in the eternal fitness of things, to marry, we have no intention of disclosing. The old lawyer, "T. and C. Bradford," is, we should say, a sketch from the life ; and the two aunts, Michel and Joan, are charming. In fact, most of the people are charming, and that is why we are so much obliged to Miss Hay, especially when we remember painfully tho sort of folk to whom lady-novelists generally introduce us. The Squire's Legacy is a good novel " to live with."