29 OCTOBER 1887, Page 22

A Loose Rein. By "Wanderer." (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.)— This

is a novel in which sport, love, and Irish affairs are mingled together, the last being perhaps the most prominent, and certainly the most seriously treated, of the three topics. We must own that just now we do not care to hear more than is necessary about evictions, Land-League troubles, boycotting, and suchlike things; but the scenes with which these have to do are vigorously described. The principal characters in the story are an admirable guardian and the foolish young man his ward. The relations between them, and the working out of something worthy of respect in the young man's life, are described with some skill. On the whole, A Loose Rein in a favourable specimen of its kind. The illustrations, by E. Bowers, are decidedly good.