In Green Fields. By Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G. (Chapman and Hall.
6e.)—Mr. Oswald Crawfurd's new book is not quite an ordinary novel, being rather a series of country scenes described by a fictitious London journalist who is trying the experiment of going "back to the land." Like many other accounts of the simple life, Mr. Crawfurd's descriptions remind one of the con- versation between Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, in which Sir Toby asks : "Does not our life consist of the four• elements ? " and Sir Andrew answers "Faith, so they say; but
I think it rather consists of eating and drinking." Conversations on the simple life usually resolve themselves into conversations on diet, and accounts of this particular kind of sylvan experiment are always greatly concerned with the mechanism of living. With regard to this book, never since the days of Charles Dickens have so many and such succulent dishes been put before the tantalised reader. Not content with constant references to food, and to the manner in which the author obtains it off his own estate, Mr. Crawfurd in the forty-seventh chapter, or rather letter, of the series takes nearly three pages to describe a long dinner which is set before some London friends. Having perused the menu with sighs for the "Gargantuan" mouth, and the digestion to match, which would have been necessary for its enjoyment, the reader is glad to see that the author sets his characters to witness a dramatic performance during the digestion of their enormous meal. In real life they would probably have gone to sleep ; but in Mr. Crawfurd's pages they enjoy the fairy play which is put before them, disturbed by no twinges caused by their dinner. There are some pleasant descriptions of the country and of country sports in these pages, but the book would have been better without the love story which Mr. Crawford has thought it necessary to introduce. People who like descriptions of green fields and long dinners will thoroughly enjoy reading Mr. Crawford's book.
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