WOOD SANCTUARY.
Many novels of the day proclaim the naturalist ; but I have never read one that showed quite such affectionate, faithful and even subtle observation as Wood Sanctuary, written in co-operation with her daughter, by " M. E. Francis (Mrs. Blundell), who died on the eve of this spring. The inci- dent of the golderest's nest, the picture of the behaviour of two rooks out of a flock, the busyness of the squirrels among the fir cones, the very movement of warm and cold currents of air in this wood that is as much a part of the story and its plot as are the people, carry a quite peculiar appeal and poignancy. Mrs. Blundell had just time to correct the proofs of this, her forty-ninth book, before she died, may one say, like a second St. Francis. Assuredly delight in natural history and the scenes of its theatre, is as lasting a quality as mankind can claim ; and a " second spring " often interpolated into the last period of the winter of life.
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