The Wife-Hunter, and Flora Douglas, are an Irish and a
Scottish tale. The scene of" The Wife-Hunter" is laid in Ireland, in the times preceding the Union ; and the story consists of the electioneering and wife-hunting adventures of a Mr. Grant, and his cousin, a Mr. Murrough O'Driscoll—two nearly penniless Irish jontlemen. "Flora Douglas" is a sort of matter-of-fact love-tale, whose hero and heroine, if such insensible persons may be called by those titles, are mixed up with Charles the Tenth and ins exiled family during their sojourn in Scotland after the Three Days; and in the account of which, the interest of the story." such as it is, consists. Neither in Ireland nor in Scotland, bow: ever, does the writer appear to be acquainted with the life he aims at describing; or he is incapable of portraying it. In " The Wire, Hunter " there are some broad but improbable stories, and many parodies of Irish eloquence, with a few perhaps real anecdotes; in "Flora Douglas " there are some carefully-written and almost vigorous scenes, with a dash here and there of telling humour; but there is nothing in the three volumes probable, characteristic, or natural—unless it be when the writer sinks down into cons monplace.
Previous page
