19 APRIL 1902, Page 22

Mock Beggars' Hall. By M. Betham-Edwards. (Hurst and Blackett. 6s.)—Not

heaviness but a rather too evident strain after quaintness is the fault of Mock Beggars' Hall, a decidedly clever genre study of rustic manners, morals, and courting in the days when it was still possible to be married at Gretna Green. This strain makes it a little difficult to understand what is meant by and for the various characters. There is no mistake, how- ever, about the prodigal Barthy after the excellent funeral chapter. But even to the end we are not quite sure that Priss was other than a " hussy " who would have been m)re justly paired with the silly gentleman-hero than with the homely farmer.