Widecombe _Fair. By Eden Phillpotts. (John Murray. Os.)— Four years
of life in Widecombe are spread out before us here, much as the parish can be viewed in detail and in panorama from a neighbouring tor on a clear day. There is no particular plot, but half a dozen or more plots might be found among the families whose internal histories or external relations are set forth. The book is of great length (and apparently is only the first of a contemplated trilogy), with many descriptive passages of carefully chosen language. These repay reading, for Mr. Phillpotts is an artist. He pays his public a compliment by demanding much of them. He faces the risk of irritating his readers by making them wonder whether they have inferior minds, unappreciative of his matter. He boldly piles up his sixty chapters of the daily life of a group of neighbours with scarcely any "comic relief "; though there is plenty of subdued humour scattered through these varied, comprehensive pages. Only two incidents stand out as far-fetched: one the unpleasant, patriarchal desires of a half-crazy, childless man ; and the other the hiding of treasure by friends, to be found by the unworldly old man who has allowed his debts to accumulate disastrously while he has been wrapped up in archaeology and genealogies. There is one curious omission which detracts from the completeness of the picture and seems to argue a lack of sympathy. Widecombe is an entirely agricultural parish ; the chief characters (who, by the way, bear the familiar names of Gurney, Hawke, Cobleigh, &c.) are yeoman farmers and their relatives or dependents : the scores of persons introduced are all, barring the postmistress, doctor, innkeepers, and a few others, engaged in agriculture, con- cerned with the fruits of the earth and with flocks and herds ; yet there is not a word of crops and their influence on the life, practically nothing of cattle, sheep, or pigs, nor even of a dog. Apart from scenery, the interest is exclusively human, and with this Mr. Phillpotts has successfully packed a stout volume.
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