The Crookit Meg a Story of the Year One. By
John Skelton. (Longmans.)—There is little to be said for the story, which is but a medium for introducing some very lively and vigorous sketches of character. These, drawn, one would think, from life, but evidently idealised with us nob true artistic feeling, are deserving of high praise. Best of all, perhaps, is Dr. Coldeail, the Established minister, a " Moderate " of the old school, but of a type to be more frequently found on the southern than on the northern side of the Border,— a man of gennine culture and learning, and of elegant manners, a brilliant and not too scrupulous talker, never dull, as it is tersely put, except when he was in the pulpit, and having but a very loose hold indeed of the dogmas of the Westminster Confession. And " Uncle Ned," boatman, &e., is another capital sketch, one of the humble men of learning and science, who find time amidst the toils of their lives to rival profound students, of whom Scotland has almost a monopoly. We do not profess to be experts in the matter of Scottish dialects, but the Scotch in The Crookit Meg reads like the best kind of Doric.
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