Lady Anne's Walk. By Eleanor Alexander. (E. Arnold. 7s. 6d.)
—The title has been suggested, we take it, by some locality in the Archbishop's Palace at Armagh. Miss Alexander has made a very happy use of it, weaving into it various matters historical and legendary, national and local ; graceful old traditions from the past, and humorous observations of the present. The present gives us, for instance, a gardener who is not less admirable than Mr. Andrew Fairservice. What a happy description is this of his first courtship: "I had a wheen o' cloves in me pocket, and Peggy- Anne, she had a wee screw o' peppermint sweeties. Says I to her, 'Peggy-Anne, would ye conceit a clove ?' And siys she to me, Tak a sweetie, Tummus.' And I went in the mornin' and giv in the names till the Reverend Crampsey. So I did." As to his second courtship, Tummus would not go beyond "them widdies!" From the past we have ghost stories, including the old acquaintance from the Beresford family, with the grim detail of the burnt wrist. Also we have various saints, as St. Patrick and St. Bridget. (Miss Alexander does not believe, it would seem, what we have lately been told, that " Bridget " does not mean a person, but twilight, or a holy well.) Altogether, this is a delightful book, with plenty of humour and feeling in it.
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