4 NOVEMBER 1899, Page 8

some verse, so obviously careless and hasty that we cannot

honestly call it more than passable. When the shepherd boy and the fisherman, each discontented with his lot in life, pass each other, why did they do it "with a nod unreconciled" ? It means, we suppose, that each knew nothing of the other's discontent, and that had they known, it might have reconciled them to their lot. Bat Lord Burleigh's nod was nothing to this. There is so much "lilt" in the ballads that it is a pity they are not better.