TUE ROAD ENGINEERS WIFE.
In many rather unexpected directions appear symptoms of the zeal for preserving rural England. There has been an outcrop of novels and plays, which might almost have been written by a propagandist department—if such existed —of the C.P.R.E. The Beloved River is one. I have not yet read it, but am credibly informed that it might be a pamphlet issued against river pollution, though, unlike some " novels with a purpose," it is a moving tale. The Hungry Road is another, with a theme quite as directly preservative as the river book. Commoners Rights is a third, issuing from s liar motive. Badger's Green belongs to the same school. Prefaces and publishers' notes go out of their way to insist on the motif. In one the Squire stands for the good angel of England, and the road engineer's wife, " modern, tradition- less and passionless,' for the bad. This oddly venomous description indicates the righteous anger which has helped to produce the story. * * *
Previous page
