Recollections of a Yorkshire Village. By J. S. Fletcher. (Digby,
Long, and Co. 6s.)—We are always glad to hear what Mr. Fletcher has to say about things and people in Yorkshire. He goes back about forty years, and the picture which he gives of the time is sufficiently vivid. Some features surprise us. We had thought that the agricultural labourer was better off in Yorkshire than in the South; here he seems to have been in a worse condition, —a whole family sleeping in one small room, and no labourer ever joining in the village cricket for lack of time. There is a very interesting chapter on "Deaths and Funerals." But can it be true that at the funeral in 1874 which he attended five hundred pairs of gloves were given to the guests costing four or five shillings a pair ? One hundred pounds for gloves alone ! As Mr. Fletcher was but eleven at the time, he must have got the figures wrong. The second part, giving the utterances of a local Socrates, Mr. Porkett, is hardly as good as the first. Would such a man be likely to say, "I know as much about analogy as Bishop Butler did," after beginning with, " I'm none going to argue wi' neither on you"?
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