Scottish Life and Characteristics. Painted by H. J. Dobson- Described
by W. Sanderson. (A. and C. Black. '7s. 6d.)—The illustrations of this book, which are in colours and twenty in number, will probably be accounted even by patriotically Scotch readers to be more interesting than the letterpress. They reproduce admirably some of the best features of the religious, domestic, and country life of Scotland,—the Scotland of yesterday, perhaps, rather than of to-day. "A Window in Thrums," "A Scottish Sacrament," "The Crofter's Grace," "Her Dochter's Bairn," "Working Life out to Keep Life in," and "His Faithful Friend " tell the familiar story of simplicity, domesticity, and piety, or of all three in combination, in a fashion which words are not required to emphasise. Mr. Sanderson, who contri- butes the letterpress, is too much given to rounding off his chapters with poetical quotations and to passages of somewhat antiquated rhetoric like this :—" Our country has a splendid record among the nations of the earth, and the sons and daughters of Scotia, by the determined stand they have always made for civil and religious liberty, have done not a little for the cause of universal brotherhood. We who enter into the privileges so gained have a great responsibility placed upon us ; it rests with us to pass on the grand traditions to coming genera- tions." At the same time, he is painstaking, and goes carefully over the familiar ground indicated by such titles of chapters RS " Scottish Church Life," " The Bairns," " The Solitudes," " Small Farms," and " The Highlands." If he is here and there a trifle too eulogistic of his countrymen, and too forgetful of their weaknesses, he has undoubtedly a warm sympathy with what is best in their nature. This book, being in every respect a handsome one, should appeal especially to middle-class Scotsmen who are at present concerned, and not without reason, as to the perpetuation of the best traditions of their country.
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