The Light of Scarthey. By Egerton Castle. (Osgood, McIlvaine, and
Co.)—The writer of this powerful but somewhat unequal story, which centres round the islet of Scarthey, on the Lancastrian Coast —" a green oasis secure on its white rocky seat amidst the breezy wilderness of sands and waters "—styles it a "romance," and he is quite justified in doing so. As a matter of fact he has sacrificed a good deal for the romance of Legitimism ; above all things he has laid himself open to the charge of prolixity. There are three characters in the book, however, which are not only well- drawn, but have nearly all the elements of romance in them. These are Sir Adrian Landale, his wife Molly, and "Captain Jack," otherwise Hubert Cochrane, who is too passionately loved by Molly, and who yet loves her sister, Madeleine,—although she cannot rise to the height of his self-sacrifice. The story of Molly's advance from childhood to womanhood is told with a minuteness not unworthy of Richardson ; and Mr. Hardy himself, except at his very best, could not have surpassed the agony of the last chapters of the book, in which "Captain Jack" dies on the scaffold, and Molly goes mad for a time. The writer of The Light of Scarthey has indeed, he to speak, all the raw material of a powerful romancist in him. But if ho is to achieve a genuine popular success, he must learn the art of con- densation, and at once and for ever abandon such writing as,— " Indeed, the cloud which had been visible upon her countenance at the beginning of dinner, and which, according to that down- right habit of mind which rendered her so terrible or so delightful a companion, she made no attempt to conceal, began to lift to- wards the first remove, and altogether vanished over her final glass of port. After dinner, she peremptorily ordered her grand- nieces into the retirement of their bed-chambers, unblushingly alleging their exhausted condition in front of the perfect bloom of their beautiful young vigour." The present generation will not stand a second Madame D'Arblay.
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