In Jacobite Days. By Mrs. Henry Clarke. (T. Nelson and
Sons. 5s.)—The scene of Mrs. Clarke's tale is laid in the West Country at the time of the landing of William of Orange. Her hero, a certain Gilbert Lane, relates his adventures with foes private and political; and a most entertaining and well-sustained narrative they make. We cannot but think, however, that the title is slightly misleading. Surely the term " Jacobite " would have been more appropriate to a time succeeding the flight of James II. The last few chapters do, indeed, deal with a later day ; but they are unimportant, and might have been omitted without much loss. The climax has been reached in the attempted capture of the Prince, and after it the interest of the reader is likely to flag.—Miss Poynter, on the other hand, cannot certainly be charged with not justifying her title, the scene of her new book, A Pair Jacobite (same publishers, 2s. 6d.), being the Court of St. Germains. Molly Fremlyn is sent by her father to stay with an uncle, one of the many ruined gentlemen then residing in France. This somewhat inexplicable action on the part of the dour Kentish yeoman, who had no Jacobite sympathies, results in his daughter becoming much attached to the house of Stuart, especially to the person of the Princess Louise. The tale is pleasantly told, but it lacks incident, and, except perhaps in the case of the old uncle, the note of passionate loyalty which cast a glamour over that melancholy little colony of exiles.
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