19 NOVEMBER 1870, Page 23

The Flower of Kildalla. By Mrs. Murray. 3 vols. (Chapman

and Hall.)—There is a great deal of love-making in these volumes, which, we cannot but say, we found very tedious, oven when we met with the exciting circumstance of one of the heroines obstinately refusing the heir to a dukedom. Besides this love-making, there is the villain of the story, a gentleman whom the most short-sighted reader is compelled to recognize at once in that character, who shows himself indeed so manifestly to be what he is, that he might as well have been introduced with a label round his neck. And there is what we cannot but call a Very gross and libellous caricature of a great public school. The title given to the chief authority is peculiar, and must be intended to identify. the place which Mrs. Murray pretends to describe. It is sufficient to say that it is one of the most ancient of our schools, and one which has kept up its reputation more steadily perhaps than any other. And yet we are required to believe that in this school, the masterships of which are always filled with scholars, and which is ruled by men who, what- ever their prejudices, are always gentlemen, a master is compelled to resign because he presumes to marry out of the little clique in which he has been expected to find a wife ! The style of the book is of the kind which we shall best describe when we say that breakfast is spokes of as "matutinal repast," and tea as "the fragrant beverage."