18 JULY 1891, Page 41

Country-House Sketches. By C. C. Rhys. (Ward and Downey.)— We

have an idea that these sketches, or some of them, have already appeared in one of the " society papers." To judge from their tone, that may well have been the case. They have a great deal of the " world " in them, with no small admixture of the " flesh" and the " devil." To a reader who wants something not alto- gether ignoble and mean, they will be sadly disappointing. It is curious that the author should fall, in his first sketch, into a gross blunder about the law of mortmain. A testator leaves some real property, failing the execution of some wish of his, to a charity. The bequest, of course, is absolutely void.