A Romance of Skye. By Maggie Maclean. (Oliphant, Anderson, and
Ferrier.)—Our writer deals with a period ending in the "Forty- five," and her scene is laid in Skye and the mainland, and intro- duces the names of Macleod and Macdonald. There is plenty of tragedy, a murdering foray of the good old type, and all the paraphernalia of the wild life and superstitious ways of thinking of the most Celtic of the Celts. The story, indeed, is strongly tinged with the melancholy grandiloquence and quarrelsomeness of the Highland nature, partaking more of the real old romance than a modern fiction. Nevertheless, it gives a not untruthful picture of life,—of Highland life in the Isles in the year 1700 from a poetical point of view. The flavour of mystery and general weirdness becomes wearisome at times, for incident must come and go fast to carry off so much that must seem theatrical to young readers.
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