5 JULY 1890, Page 34

Tales of Old Scotland. By Charles Rampini. (Macniven and Wallace,

Edinburgh.)—This is a rather disappointing book to be. produced by a Scotch Sheriff-Substitute who is also entitled to write " F.S.A. Scot." after his name. It is neither more nor less than a collection of some of the most familiar stories in Scotch history, such as "The Wooing of Malcolm," "The Battle of Otterbtwn," "Fatal Flodden," and "The Tragedy of Gowrie." Sheriff Rampini re-tells these in an agreeable enough fashion, and his volume is one that might well be put into the hands of an in- telligent Scotch boy. Yet this is not a sufficient excuse for its existence.