Stronbuy ; or, Hanks of Highland Yarn. By the Author
of " Tobersnorey.' (Macniven and Wallace.)—Stronbuy is a small Highland shooting-box, which its proprietor, who is seized with au accommodating desire to spend his summer in the South of Europe,. lends to Frank Gunter, the supposed writer of this story, and his friend, the Hon. Ted O'Halloran. The story has a little about sport in it, and much about Highland life ; while the romantic element is supplied by a love-affair, amusing rather than sentimental. "None of the characters," the author assures us, "are to be met with in the flesh." We may easily accept this ; indeed, it seems doubtful whether the place has anything at all corresponding to it in the real Highlands. For a place "in the remote Highlands," it is marvellously populated. "Of neighbours we had but few," says the writer. Nevertheless, he gives us a very considerable list. There are three farmers in the neighbourhood, all available for social purposes, and a good many lairds, besides the young Englishman who is the hero of the love- story. But it matters little. Not only is the book very pleasant reading, with a touch here and there of something more serious than laughter, but it seems a genuine transcript of thought and manners.
The characters may, for literary purposes, be brought together more thickly than they would actually be found, but they are natural and true. There are exceptions. The "man" with his queer mixtures of piety, drunkenness, and greed, is not a fair specimen of the strange enthusiasts, who go under the name of "the men" in Ross-shire and elsewhere; and we may hope that the brutal McLucas, of Tostany Castle, is a caricature. On the whole, the personages of the story, if it may so be called, are excellent, coloured a little and exaggerated in outline, for the sake of fun, but distinctly doing credit to the writer's literary art. There are capital anecdotes, too, interspersed, some, perhaps, a little worn, but others quite fresh and sufficiently amusing. There is the conversation between Mr. McAudle and Thomas the " herd," when he went to him for baptism, "'I hope you are prepared, Thomas,' said he, 'for so important an occasion!' ' Well,' said Thomas, 'I am not badly prepared, for my condition in life. I've a hist fon o' bannocks and twa stane of good cheese, and a braxy ham!' ‘.A_h ! Thomas,' said the doctor, 'you are indeed carnally minded.' Ittslthe letter, and no the speerit o' the ordinance, ye've been keeping in mind.' 'Ah, weel !' said Thomas, didn't forget that, neither, for I've a jar of rael good stuff from Duncan, the innkeeper.'"
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