Episodes of Rural Life. By W. E. W. Collins. (W.
Blackwood and Sons. 6s.)—Mr. Collins discourses in an amusing way about cricket—the story of the "seventh ball of the over" is a little beyond our powers of belief—about motor-cars, about various rural characters—the "Anthropomorphic Christian" is a good specimen—about pigs and poultry, and other things that are too many to enumerate. He must not be taken too seriously. His pessimism about pigs and poultry, for instance, is cynical. Both may be made to pay well enough ; the pig, in particular, is a set-off to the waste that goes on in most well-to-do households, and, of necessity, in every garden. And we would suggest that the jests which depend for their point on a parody of Scripture language might well be retrenched. They offend, and they are so easy to make as to be unworthy of a skilful pen. We must not forget to mention a delightful biography of a dog, ' Tartar ' by name.
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