29 NOVEMBER 1890, Page 25

A Cavalier Stronghold : a Romance of the Vale of

Belvoir. By Mrs. Chaworth Musters. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—Mrs. Chaworth Musters has woven a good deal of the family history of the Chaworths, a number of local traditions of the Vale of Belvoir, and several songs and poems of the Cavalier period, into a story of love and loyalty of a wholesome and pleasant kind. The Cavalier stronghold is Wyverton House ; John, Lord Chaworth, from whom both Lord Byron and the Mary Chaworth of his love and his lyrics were descended in the sixth degree, is its defender; the heroine of the story is Juliana de in Fontaine, afterwards Lady Tracy ; and the chief personage is "Rupert of the Rhine," who is made very interesting. The tale lacks liveliness in parts ; but it is more lifelike than most of such attempts to resuscitate the past on fixed principles, and it is written in a careful and refined style.