13 MARCH 1897, Page 24

how to use, the Lancashire dialect, the story of Elijah

and Asenath Holt. Elijah Holt is the village " clogger,"—i.e., the maker and mender of clogs. (There is a specially good passage in which the shrewd old man makes guesses about character from the look of the clogs which are brought to him for mending.)

The first part of the story relates how a child was born to Elijah in his old age, and how the child fared. It is full of a rough pathos. More tragic, in a way, is the tale of how the pride of old Fenton Lord is broken down.. This is a book much above the average.