Lord liaskelyne's Daughter. By Rosa Mackenzie Kettle. (J. Weir.)—As we
are told, under the date of April, 1880, that this is a "new story," we do not quite see the meaning of the special "author's edition" that appears on the title-page, unless it means that in some mysterious way the author gets out of it more profit than commonly falls to an author's share. It is more intelligible when we are told that this is Miss Kettle's "nineteenth volume," and that we may hope to see a dozen more. We trust that Miss Kettle may carry out her plans. and tell us about the "bold contraband traders of Hurstmonceaux," about the Welsh borderland and Dorsetshire, and her Devonshire baronet. To judge from our experience of what Miss Kettle writes, as compared with what the average novelist writes, readers and critics may look forward to the future with equanimity, and even cheerfulness. Lord Maskelyne's Daughter is a quite readable story, told in a somewhat grandiose style, without a suspicion of anything to which the most scrupulous could object. The "Northern Border," which is the scene of the tale, is more like Arcadia than we had hoped. Even the worldly and unscrupulous noble reaches, under the influence of its purifying atmosphere, a virtue which is at least of the average standard. Neither his character, nor indeed any that Miss Kettle draws, are at all striking ; but they are at least possible, and the English which they talk, if scarcely the English of conversation, is at least gram- matical.
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