20 JUNE 1896, Page 24

The Lost Pibroch, and other Sheiling Stories. By Neil Munroe.

(W. Blackwood and Sons.)—These stories are doubtless faithful representations of the semi-savage life and character of the Gaelic district to which they belong. But they would be more generally interesting if they were padded with a little more convention. As we read them one after the other, though we enjoy their flashes of fugitive poetry and romance, we find ourselves wishing for interludes of tamer emotion,—cross-threads of commonplace capable of being woven into the web of comfortable life. " Boboon's Children" is the story which comes nearest te giving the impression of a theme worked out ; the rest seem but to suggest possibilities in order to tantalise us. But of their kind the tales are all good, and we commend them to readers who have an insatiable appetite for undiluted folk-lore and local colour.