Sprays of Northern Pine. By Fergus Mackenzie. (Oliphant, Anderson, and
Ferrier.)—This is a volume of Scotch sketches of the now almost too familiar "Kailyard" type. They are conscien- tiously constructed and carefully written, and the dialect is almost unexceptionable. Nor is the author a mere imitator of the authors of "A Window in Thrums " and "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush." He has looked at Scotch life, as it is to be seen in country districts, with his own eyes, and has used his own camera in photographing scenes from it. His book consists ostensibly of short stories, but they are, in reality, disguised studies of character. Most of them are more notable for pathos than for humour. There is a good deal of quiet fun, however, in such a story as "The Despised Leader," which deals with the disputes in the musical section of a Scotch congregation. A Dominie Sillar, a dissipated and broken-down man of "pains," who figures in several sketches, is a genuine addition to the modern Scotch national portrait-gallery.
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