Dens Hollow. By Mrs. Henry Wood. 3 vole. (Bentley.)—De Quinces ,
teatime on some occasion the strange fatality which doomed to a prema- ture death anyone who happened to hold any office or other possession which it was convenient for the poet Wordsworth to have. We are reminded of the remark by the apology which Mrs. Wood feels con- etrainecl to make for the extraordinary mortality which prevails among her characters. She cannot help herself, she gives us to understand. There was this dreadful mortality ; she only tells us facts, real histories which have come within her knowledge. Unlucky mortals, we say, whom destiny has marked out as the subjects of Mrs. Wood's pen, even :though in another sense it confer immortality! That those who stand between the hero and his title and estates should perish to a man we cannot be surprised at; that is the common fate of families which are unlucky enough to have a hero among their younger branches. But the doom which overtakea numbers of innocent people quite free from the guilt of occupying so unseemly a position is too fearful. But it is idle to criti- cize facts. Let us rather beg Mrs. Wood to acquaint herself with lass doleful histories. For did she not seek to pull so fiercely at our heart- strings, we could read her with pleasure. She knows, as our readers scarcely need to hear from us, how to tell a story, weaving an excellent plot, and making her characters, if not very profound and subtle studios, still sufficiently like life. The mysteries which she brings into Dens .Hollow are, it is true, of but little account. Of one, the ghost, it does not require any sagacity to discover the explanation, and the other, the shadow, is not, as far as we can sac, explained at all ; but the story has plenty of surprises for tho reader, and keeps up his interest in a reason- 1.ble sort of fashion to the end. When we add to this the well-deserved praise that there is not a syllable in the novel to which objection can be taken, we have given to Dens Hollow a sufficiently strong recom- mendation.
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