25 NOVEMBER 1871, Page 21

Jeremiah ilfobbob. By Rowland Lloyd. 2 vols. (Newby.)—Mr. Lloyd dedicates

his hook to his " grandfather, Thomas Jones, who, in his earlier days, was distinguished as a Welsh poet." It would be rash to infer that a man can write Welsh poetry from the fact that he cannot write English prose. Yot, on the whole, we take it upon ourselves to recom- mend Mr. Lloyd, if be must write, to devote himself to the literature in which an ancestor seems to have oarnod renown. Here is a sentence from page 2, which it would ho easy to match with a sentence from every one of tho five hundred pages of Jeremiah Maim() :—" Mr. Jeremiah Mobbob is a bachelor ; in that all-charming existonco he prides his station, living his miseries in tho secret habitation of his own soul; grumbles at himself, or dothronoa his stupidity at sundry house- hold furniture, until he has wreaked his wrath in unparalleled com- placency, to its unwontod termination." This might be very flue, for all that we know, if it were turned into Welsh verse. As it stands in English, it is the most unintelligible nonsense that we over saw in print. Prom boginning to end the whole book is like it. It is impossible to criticize it; WO can only wonder what the printers thought of it, whet the "reader," genoraliy a critical gentleman who objects to any little eccentricity of style, had to say to it.