anima/la; or, the Saxons in the Isle of Wight. By
F. Cowper, M.A. (Seeley and Co.)—A tale of the seventh century. The country is represented as having lapsed into barbarism. Casiwalla, a descendant of one of the original Saxon invaders, is fighting for the kingdom of Wessex; and the scene of the various conflicts is Wihtee, as it was then called. He is finally successful, and becomes a Christian through the influence of St. Wilfrid. That the Saxons had developed much intellectual power seems doubtful. Mr. Cowper, indeed, does not present them as other than "mere jovial, hard. fighting, hard-drinking, blustering dullards." In the monks we have the only gleams of culture and gentleness ; but they, indeed, had not much control over such men. There is plenty of incident in the story; the scene an the mad flats is particularly amusing, with its mixture of the absurd and the tragic. Would a Saxon boy have used the somewhat vulgar expression, a "eight of people ?" or would the monks really have quoted as much Latin as we find them doing ? Among a fierce and warlike people they should have ehown better taste. The illustrations, which are by the author, are picturesque and in character, and the book itself is nicely got up.
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