Historical Tales of the Southern Counties, is a pleasing and
rather promising trio of stories relating to Saxon and Norman history. The subject of the first, "The Sea Kings," is an its vasion of the Danes in the time of ALFRED, and the distresses of a pair of lovers carried off by the marauders, but rescued by the exertions of an amiable rejected, and the promptitude of the King. The second tale, "Walter Tyrrell," first makes Tyrrell and Rufus rivals in love, and then takes up the story of the knight's wanderings during his remorseful exile, for being the cause of the accidental death of his royal friend. The last story is chiefly occupied with the dangers and adventures brought upon William, son of Robert Duke of Normandy, by the persecutions of his uncle Henry the First. Mixed up with these leading mat- ters, are subordinate persons and events, with many things de- signed to display the costumes of the age, if not its customs. To high merit, either in narrative or character, the author has no pretensions; but his book is agreeable reading of the romantic kind, where every thing is happily settled according to the wishes of the reader, and even rogues repent, or die at the nick of time.
Previous page
