Cotswold Characters. By John Drinkwater. With five engravings on wood
by Paul Nash. (London : Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. 6s. 6d.)—The essays which make up Mr. Drinkwater's little volume have already appeared in the American Press. It seems a commonplace to say that essays originally written for serial publication should rarely be seen between boards, but it is an axiom so true and so generally disregarded that its constant repetition by the critic must be forgiven. Mr. Drinkwater has extracted almost more than all the flavour from his Cotswold masons and wheelwrights and thatchers, and the studies in which their characters are sketched produce an impression of rather sickly sweetness. The story of Pony, the footballer, is, in fact, merely a skilfully retold version of the tale one may find in almost any number of almost any lny's paper. We can imagine, however, that the book will attract many readers, for it is pleasant and meditative, and Mr. Paul Nash's fantastic woodcuts supply an element of agreeable astringency.
Previous page
