reader. They are to be found in its composition and
its style. Mr.
• Peacock, indeed, writes with great vigour, uses a satire that is keen, though somewhat indiscriminate, and draws life and manners with a vivid distinctness. These qualities make him attractive, even though the story of Ralf Skirlaugh moves rather heavily through the first and second volumes. In the third, however, the author gives it more liveli- ness. As the plot develops itself towards its denouement it can scarcely fail to excite considerable interest. At all events, every reader will recognize everywhere the work of a man who, besides carefully studying the period which he describes, has extended his reading widely into other regions, and who writes with scholarly elegance and tone. The tale introduces us, we ought to say, to Engligh country life, and especially to that phase of it which might be seen in the Jacobite families in the interval between 1745 and the accession of George III.
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