A SHROPSIIIRE POSTMAN. ,
The postman of Cleobury Mortimer has obtained the sort of reputation won by Clare, whose early fame was due less to the merit of what he wrote than to the fact that he was inspired to write. Clare's has become an established name ; because he sloughed his early crudities and discovered his real vein. We may say the same of Mr. Evans. His latest book, At Abdon Burf (Heath Cranton, 3s. 6d.), though it will make less clamour than The Crooked Steeple, is artistically an immense advance on it. Without consideration of the per- sonality or career of the author one may say that his tales of countrymen, which are better than his pictures of country, are genuine, humorous, sympathetic and sufficiently dramatic to make very good reading. Astonishingly few writers haVe ever come near enough to the authentic countryman to reproduce his idiom and his psychology with 'this degree of
easy fidelity. The book contains one very moving like and Mr. Shakeshaft is a rural Falstaff of whom" we hope- to
hear more. He has the root of the matter _in him. _ W. BEZteir THOM-V..
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