" AINSLIE GORE."
[To nos Enron or 555 .8555T5505."1 Sea,—In reply to Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Ce. in your last issue, may I be allowed to point out that in the letter which, you were good enough to print on February 6th I did not "assume" the book entitled _Ainslie Gore to be a work of fiction, but mentioned certain things by which I had been led to that conclusion, after passing through a state of doubt upon the subject P The publishers now tell us that the only fictitious element in the book is the name which forms its title. With reference to this statement, I would ask whether "Denton," the mysterious hero's birthplace, described as being a parish and as possessing a church (pp. 48 and 309e and " Actover," a post-town in the neighbourhood (pp. 268 and 27I), are real places in Gloucestershire. A writer who„, besides giving his principal character a feigned name, intro- duces feigned names of places into his narrative has no right to expect his book to be received, by any one who reads it at all carefully, as a " genuine biography."—I am, Sir, Fee., C. L. D.
[We cannot continue this correspondence.—En. Spectator.]
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