7 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 13

Tales from the Telling - House. By R. D. Blackmore. (Sampson Low,

Marston, and Co.)—In one of the four stories included in this volume Mr. Blackmore goes back to the familiar subject of the Doones, and this is, perhaps, the beat of the four. " Frida ; or, the Lover's Leap," is a doleful tale without much to redeem its melancholy. "George Bowring " is a tragical story, well con- trived and well told. " Crocker's Hole" is a charming little experience of angling. John Pike was indeed a fisherman of genius, with an "infinite capacity for taking pains" in his vocation, and we follow, if, perchance, we too have been in Arcadia, the story of how he caught the big trout of the Hole with breathless interest.