Boydenhurst. By Hester Hope. 3 vols. (Remington and Co.)— Sir
Godfrey Culverton, by extravagant expenditure and losses in betting, hopelessly encumbers his property. As the property is said to be entailed, this is somewhat difficult to understand. It is proposed to cut off the entail, but the scheme is stopped, because the son, getting into a furious rage with the principal creditor, throws him into a horse- pond, and then leaves his home. One would suppose that the natural consequence of all this would be that Sir Godfrey would have to sell his life-interest, and that the son would have to live as he could till his father's death, and would then come into the entailed property, free from all encumbrances, except such as the original settlement of it permitted. As the father dies early in the first volume, the tale would have been greatly shortened, but Miss Hope seems to think that fis tenant for life can cut off an entail himself, for we find Sir Godfrey leaving a letter to his son, in which he says that, having been entreated by his wife "not to cut off the entail," he has made a proviso, in what is mysteriously called "the sale of the reversion," that the son or his- heirs may redeem the property within twenty-five years. The per- plexity is not diminished by our finding the foreclosing creditor marry- ing in haste, in order that he may have an heir, and so shut out the old family for ever. Was there ever confusion worse confounded ? This- is the only noticeable thing in the volume, unless we are to except a description of the very silliest attempt at personation that we ever came across. In what world do the ladies live who write such books ? Have they no one to keep them out of such unaccountable mistakes ?
Previous page
