GHOST STORIES.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. By Montague Rhodes James, Litt.D. (E. Arnold. 6s.)—There can be no question about the literary merit of these eight stories, and of the ingenuity which Dr. James has shown in their construction. But we must own to an indifference as to constructed ghost stories. The simplest hint of something preternatural that may have really been seen or heard seems much more effectual to interest, and, indeed, to terrify, than the most elaborately contrived series of horrors. There are things in Mr. Thiselton-Dyer's "Ghost World," in Mrs. Crowe's "Night Side of Nature," and in the Trans- actions of the Psychical Society that to our thinking far surpass the " Antiquary's " most blood-curdling tales. There is the story, for instance, from either Mr. Dyer or Mrs. Crowe, of the traveller who, passing by a place where criminals had been hung in chains, saw horrible creatures, half pig, half rat, playing under the gallows. Dr. James makes a great point of his ghost creatures. But experiences and sensations differ. The writer of this notice has gathered opinions about the " Antiquary's " stories from some younger readers, and finds a unanimous judgment that they are things to be read by daylight.
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