Under Cheddar Cliffs. By Edith Seeley. (Seeley and Co. 5s.)
—"A Hundred Years Ago" is added on the title-page. A hundred years bring us back to the time when Hannah More and her sister were a centre of good and gracious influence in their Somersetshire home. These ladies appear in the story, and the appearance is managed with much delicacy and skill. It would be easy to exaggerate the characteristics of Hannah More, whether in the way of praise or of caricature. It is all the more to the credit of Miss Seeley's literary taste that she does nothing of the kind. The personages whose figures stand out more prominently in the book are excellently drawn,—vigorous portraits all of them, with the "warts" and all as Nature made them and grace changed them. For, indeed, as may be supposed from the sub- ject, there is a religious element in the story. And here again we recognise the writer's good judgment. Old Jacob and Lawrence, who is the hero of the story, are touched by the new light, but this effect is not represented by any crude colours. The Lawrence of the first chapter is the Lawrence of the last, the same and not the same, as we are made to see in a very convincing way.
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