New Novels
RHYMER'S WAKE. By Mary MacCarvill. With Frontis- piece by John Keating. (Murray. 5s.)—The wanderings of Peter the Rhymer, who made the songs of the people and sang them at Irish fairs or crossroads, excite our curiosity. Miss MacCarvill, however, in this first novel, deals only with the balladmaker's last return to his native village, when he feels that the hour of his death is approaching. In anecdote and country rhyme re- peated by kindly neighbours, we gain glimpses of Peter's roadside life and the rollicking years which he had for- gotten., Irish melancholy and merriment mingle in the vivacious scene of an Irish wake, and Davnet, the little girl who is too young to understand the sad pomp of death, gives a charming touch to this simple tale of an Ulster countryside.
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