Constance Aylmer; a Story of the Seventeenth Century. By H.
F. P. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—We always feel to be "rubbed up the wrong way " by stories of the seventeenth century, whether they are written in the interest of Cavaliers or of Roundheads. We have not to find fault with this tale for any want of fairness beyond what is inseparable from the class to which it belongs. The Cavaliers, it is true, are frivol- ous and bigoted ; but then Constance herself is no fanatic, has a very pretty taste in dress, for instance, and the ultimate hero admires art arid poetry with a most genuine devotion. Milton, in fact, is H. F. P.'s ideal of a Puritan, and Milton was about as much of a Puritan as Mr. Matthew Arnold is. The scenery and surroundings of the story seem to have been carefully studied, but we are inclined to doubt what is said of the ornaments, especially the "crucifixes," in St. Paul's before the Commonwealth. H. F. P. is something of an iconoclast. We should not be inclined to break to pieces old stained glass, even if it did represent the Almighty as an old man with a pair of compasses working hard for six days and resting in his arm-chair on the seventh.
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