English Country-Life. By Walter Raymond. With Illustra- tions by Wilfrid
Ball. (T. N. Foulis. 5s. net.)—Mr. Raymond gives us a long procession of village characters,—the parson, the prosperous farmer, Old Abe (who still practises the almost forgotten art of threshing), the sexton, one or two old maids, and a company of village matrons, not to speak of other less easily named varieties of inhabitant. Then we have something about the rural year and its operations, for we begin with spring and end with Christmas. Mr. Ball does his part very well with his landscapes, farmhouses, barns, cottages, and the like. Altogether, it is a very pretty book, good to read, and good to look at. We venture to suggest that in the "Easter Vestry" chapter there is a confusion between "parish clerk " and "sexton." The clerk is irremovable; he has a freehold in his office. The sexton has not; and consequently prudent parsons allow the office of clerk to fall into abeyance. And is it usual, we may ask, for the vestry to elect ? Surely the patronage is with the parson.
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