Two Books by Mr. Stephen Gwynn
Ireland. By Stephen Gwynn. (Harrap. is. 6d.) In Praise of Franca. By Stephen Gwynn. (Nisbet. 10s. 6d.) Two new books by Mr. Stephen Gwynn have come out simul- taneously for our delight. Mr. Gwynn knows Ireland inside and out in every sense of the phrase. He knows it from the Irish point of view and the English, the Catholic and the Protestant. He is in love with Ireland, so far as that state of mind is compatible with keeping one's head.
The thing which differentiates Ireland most from this country is that there nothing goes by clockwork. The fun of Trish life, the author tells us, consists " in observing how things are made to serve purposes for which they were not meant, and a great deal of the adventure lies in coping with the consequences of these adjustments." Another source of pleasure and refreshment to the visitor comes from the fact that " speech in Ireland is less regulated by convention than it is here and consequently is often more picturesque." Meeting one day with an Irishman who had been working in some Welsh ironworks Mr. Gwynn asked him whether it was lack of work
at home that made him leave the bay of South Cork where he grew up. "'Twas not just that," came the answer- " "rums the flight of fancy."
We are at a loss to decide whether the descriptions, the digressions or the illustrations please us most in this fascinating pocket volume.
In Praise of France casts a little less potent spell ; none the less it affords very pleasurable reading. The same happy knack of describing not only the scene before him, but what Stevenson somewhere calls " the innuendo of the scene " displays itself again. The would-be wanderer in France must not, however, be led to suppose that as a guide to a summer
holiday the book might not be practical—it is indeed emin- ently practical. In that particular both books remind us of the lady who was said to be entirely sincere, and just as nice as if she wasn't.
Previous page
