4 JUNE 1904, Page 24

Lychgate Hall. By M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell). (Longmans

and Co. 6s.)—There is a great deal of charm in Mrs. Francis Blundell's story of country life in the early eighteenth century. The mystery attaching to the beautiful tenant of Lychgate Hall is not quite so convincing, when explained, as the reader might wish ; but that is a fault very common in modern fiction. The character-drawing is good and forcible, making the persons of the drama much more living than characters drawn in the twentieth century, and supposed to live in the eighteenth, usually are. Altogether, Lychgate Hall is a very pleasant and well-written story.