Kirby in the Dale. By John Rye, M.A. 3 vols.
(W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)—The new rector of Kirby in the Dale was certainly justified in thinking that he bad been brought by circum. stances to a strange place. College dons, however sick they may be of Oxford life, would have to think twice of changing their condition if they were likely to be plunged into such oceans of mysteries and perplexities as the Rev. Charles Otway found in his new parish. There is a somewhat disreputable peer, who has made a secret second marriage ; a most unquestionably disreputable son, who appears on the scene to make endless trouble ; a drunken, blasphemous couple, Mr. and Mrs. De Touche ; an interesting young lady, secretly married to the disreputable son ; and, not to mention other personages, a young lady, daughter to the ex-rector, who falls in love with the successor with a most embarrassing promptitude. The drama in which these people play a part seems to us quite outside common experience. Nevertheless, it is told with some kind of vigour, and the dialogue is for the most part unconstrained and natural. The great fault is what we must call a certain vulgarity. The young clergyman, for instance, who is meant it would seem for something like an ideal, speaks of preaching for thefirst time in his churches "throwing-off in a new place," and flirts in a very worldly fashion.
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