The Ballactists. By John Geddie. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier.)—This is
a volume of the "Famous Scots Series," and has the best of rights to a place in it. But the title is in a way a misnomer. As Mr. Geddie remarks, "Who would set forth to explore the realm of our ballad literature needs not to hamper himself with any biographical baggage The balladist is a voice, and nothing more." He is in one sense famous, in another sense not so ; "known and yet unknown." So this book is mainly critical. Mr. Geddie does not wholly despise the modern ballad, and he renders ample justice to the growths of English soil. "We do not possess," he says, "a group of ,ballads pervaded so thoroughly with the freedom and delight of living under the leaves greene as those of the Robin Hood :cycle." Scottish ballads he characterises as generally full of gloom. There is something weird in the best of them which is not found in those of South Britain. These and other criticisms are excellently drawn out in Mr. Geddie's pages. He has cer- tainly made a contribution of remarkable value to the literary history of Scotland. We do not know of a book in which the ,subject has been treated with deeper sympathy or out of a fuller knowledge.
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