Shakespeare's Homeland. By W. Salt Brassington. (J. M. Dent and
Co. is. 6d. net.)—The author tells us that in these sketches he "has endeavoured to record his impressions of the couatry round Stratford-on-Avon, and to collect local traditions" relating to the poet. Ile has also given us an account of some relics of the poet and of Shakespeare Celebrations. All this he does well enough. He is an enthusiastic Shakespearian ; whatever is to be known about the poet, his kinsfolk and belongings, he has taken pains to learn, and he has a sufficiently agreeable way of expressing it. Nor are we disposed to complain when he goes further afield, and tells us about curious places and persons where the connection with Shakespeare is not very clear or close. It is a pity that he should venture on such rash generalisations as that "when Queen Elizabeth persecuted Catholics, she did so with a refinement of cruelty which was worse than killing them out- right." The question of the relations between the Queen and the Roman Catholics is a very grave one, and not to be settled offhand in this way. It is quite certain that she would have been content to leave them alone if they would have left her alone. She was not a gentle person, but she took no serious action till she was excommunicated in 1570 by the Pope.
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