Annals of a Fishing Village. Edited by J. A. Owen.
(Black- wood and Sons.)—These chapters, the editor tells us, "have been taken from the notes of the self-taught naturalist, the author of ' Woodland, Moor, and Stream." Tho village wherein the scene is laid bears the fictitious name of "Marshton ;" but it may be located somewhere in the Kentish marshes. Like most even of the most out-of-the-way corners of England, it has felt the advance
of time, and the scenery and life which the author describes with such graphic skill are, in a great measure, things of the past. We may venture on the conjecture that Denzil Magnier, the boy naturalist possessed with a passion for learning all that he can about bird and boast, is, in a measure, a piece of self-portraiture, and that the other personages of the story are more or loss pictures from life. The creatures of the marsh, wild duck and heron down to the humble reed-sparrow, are touched with a rare fidelity and skill, and we do not doubt that the human characters, which, indeed, are by no means conventional figures, are equally true. This book is nothing loss than fascinating.
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