NOVELS.
MEMOIRS OF A PERSON OF QUALITY.*
THE long scenario of Mr. Hilliers's romance given on his title-page prepares the reader for something unconventional and unusual, and these expectations are richly fulfilled in the contents of this admirably written and engrossing romance. That it will please all comers we are by no means prepared to assert, for its leisurely mode of progress may disconcert readers who are accustomed to the swifter and more sensa- tional methods of contemporary romancers, while the lines on which it is developed may cause them to think that they are defrauded of their due. The hero, who is the second son of an Earl, is born in 1777, and enters the Dragoon Guards. He ought, therefore, according to the rules of the game, to see service in the Peninsular War. Instead of which he leaves the Army young, sinks his rank, and spends the prime of his life in a more or less menial position in the service of Yorkshire Quakers. Anything less calculated, on the face of it, to furnish scope for the exercise of a picturesque imagination it would be difficult to conceive. Such an audacious deviation from the well-worn paths can only be justified by results, and in the volume before us the results are of excellent quality. It is true we have no campaigning -or battle scenes, but on the score of exciting incident no exception can be taken to the narrative. Duels, pugilism, the perils of the North Road, all the romance, heroism, and villainy that centre in that noble animal the horse,—in a word, the seamy side of Georgian life is here set forth with an added picturesqueness and piquancy derived from the intrepid antagonism of the little knot of Quakers into whose midst the hero is so strangely projected at the nadir of his fortunes.
George Fanshawe, the central figure and narrator, though Ids early career progresses on unfamiliar lines, has one trait in common with many modern heroes of romance,—the com- bination of blundering with bravery. He quits his father's roof in Suffolk to join his regiment at York, a semi-illiterate hobbledehoy, with little knowledge save of the points of a horse. His messmates are an ill-conditioned set of bullies who, thinking him an easy butt for practical joking, are :speedily disillusioned. He leaves his principal aggressor half dead, the Colonel sides with the majority, and Fanshawe only escapes Court-Martial by resignation. Disowned and cast off by his father, and with no equipment but that of bodily strength to fall back upon, he is reduced to earning his living as a labourer, and takes service for a while with a mealman, until 'a false charge of theft preferred by his master's wife loses him hill employ. Than follows a period during which he
-• Heronfri ofa Person of Qualay.- By AnItton:Hilliara London [6a.]
roams about the country picking up odd jobs, working with harvesters, and consorting with gypsies, until he is rescued when at the end of his tether by the almost miraculous intervention of a young millernamed Ellwood. In his relations with his rescuer's family, members of the Society of Friends, the chief interest of the narrative resides. The picture of country life in York. shire a hundred years ago, whether historically accurate or not, is admirably done, and the relations of Church folk and Nonconformists are illustrated without any undue partisan. ship or animus. Fanshawe, now become a journeyman miller —a trade of which Mr. Hilliers has obviously an intimate expert knowledge—owes much to his friends, yet, in spite of his spiritual awakening, never wholly conquers his longing to resume his former station. But his education goes steadily on until the time when it becomes necessary for him to reveal his parentage in order to vindicate his character. In the restoration of Fanshawe to society, his temporary immersion in the vortex of fashion, and the imminent peril he undergoes at the hands of sharpers and adventurers we are less interested. Though these scenes are spiritedly done, they are not free from a suggestion of artificiality. But there are no longueurs in the story, long as it is, and the best proof of the author's skill is to be found in the fact that though the unexpected is con- stantly happening—who, for instance, would expect to find an ex-Oppidan and carabineer consorting with Irish harvesters, or a Quaker whose brother was a notorious horse-thief and highwayman 7—we accept it without protest, so compelling is the force of circumstances, so plausible and engrossing the narrative.
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