The story of Lily Keag, daughter of a Co. Down Orangeman, who, to the disgust of her social circle, falls in love with her father’s servant boy. The latter goes to America, and thence returns, a wealthy man, to claim Lily. The scenery is well described and the dialect well rendered. A healthy and high-toned novel. ⸺ BLACK ABBEY. Pp. 447. (_Sampson, Low_). [1880]. 1882. We are first introduced to a delightful circle, the three children of Black Abbey (somewhere in Co. Down) and those about them, their German governess and Irish nurse and their playmate Bella, born in America, granddaughter of the old Presbyterian minister. The picture of their home-life is pleasant and life-like, with a vein of quiet humour. Then they grow up and things no longer run smoothly. Bella, by her marriage, well-nigh wrecks four lives, including her own, but things seem to be righting themselves as the story closes. The dialect of the Northern servants is very well done. The tone of the book is most wholesome though by no means “goody-goody.” ⸺ DIVIL-MAY-CARE; alias Richard Burke, sometime Adjutant of the Black Northerns. Pp. x. + 306. (_F. V. White_). 6_s._ 1899. A series of humorous and exciting episodes, forming the adventures of an officer home from India on sick leave. Most of them are located in Antrim. No religious or political bias, but a tinge of the stage Irishman. ⸺ THE GOLDEN BOW. (_Holden & Hardingham_). 6_s._ _c._ 1912. Story of the sorrows and suitors, from her unhappy childhood to a happy engagement, of an Irish girl, who is poor, proud, and pretty. A lovable character is Judith’s crippled sister Melissa. Scene: N. of Ireland. There is a good deal of dialect, and the ways of the peasantry are faithfully depicted. =CROSBIE, Mary.= Born in England. Educated privately and at various English schools. Has frequently visited and stayed in Ireland. Her first novel, _Disciples_, was publ. in 1907; but it was the second that was most successful, three editions being called for within a short time. ⸺ KINSMEN’S CLAY. Pp. 389. (Close print). (_Methuen_). 6_s._ First and second editions. 1910. Main theme: wife and lover waiting for invalid and impossible husband to die. The treatment of this theme and that of a minor plot makes the book unsuited for certain classes of readers. Moreover, the tone is alien to religion. God is “perhaps the flowering of men’s ideals under the rain of their tears.” But the tone is not frankly anti-moral. The personages are all of the country Anglo-Irish gentry, except one peasant family, and this shows up badly. The types are drawn with much skill, and there is constant clever analysis of moods and emotions. The story brings out in a vague way the transmission through a family of ancestral peculiarities. ⸺ BRIDGET CONSIDINE. Pp. 347. (_Bell_). 6_s._ 1914.