LAND OF DAY-DREAMS. By Gerald Villiers-Stuart. (Holden. 7s. 6d. net.)—Mr.
Villiers-Stuart calls his volume of Irish stories Land of Day-Dreams, and he contrives to convey across St. George's Channel the authentic vaguely poetic feeling of that country " where the mountains of Morse go down to the sea." At the same time, the author gives in his introductory preface a very true criticism of what must surely be the land of his birth. In this he draws the dis- tinction, which always puzzles the plain Saxon, between the temperament of the Irishman at home and that which he develops when he settles in another country. Mr. Villiers- Stuart puts it all down to Ireland herself. She is the true Land of Day-Dreams, and she takes little interest in the practical mechanism which, of course, by ordinary English rules should be used to carry out her dreams. In these stories the purely Irish studies, such as " The Mind of Shamus Troy," " The Day- Dream," and " The Luck of the Sword," which are put first in the volume, are the most interesting and the most informing for the purpose of interpreting Ireland. Needless to say, the mystic element is well represented, and " The Glen of the Foxes " is a truly eerie tale, in which " the scratching at the door " will give the reader an agreeable shiver. Mr. Villiers-Stuart has an excellent mastery of his interpretative medium. He writes well both in the English and the Anglo-Irish language.
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