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352 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A.N Old Debt. By Florence Dawson. Two Vo...
affection the bright of surface the hi with h for their the g lowl igantic —the arms two , shelter together it as express it were the with perfect the
gy union Very of different strength and indeed purity from . " ' An Old Debt' is the Laird of Norlaw .
Tlie plot , for it is more than a story , contains all the requisites for a real old-fasMoned novel . There is a rightful heir , a suppressed
will , and meetings which invariably occur between the very people and at the very time needed , either to unwind , or if need be , farther
to complicate the tangled web ; and which , by no stretch of imaginationand with every possible allowance for the improbable , never
, could or did happen in real life . Still , in spite of this , and making tne improbabilities of incident all the more glaring , there are real
flesh , and blood characters , some of which we may have seen before , some of which , we may never care to see again , but still drawn with
minute touches , page after page , line affcer line ; and which , though too minute at times , leave in our memory a certain number of real
Scotch , people , good , bad , and indifferent , but still real living people . The mother of the three young men , her pride , her tenderness , her
homely but yet dignified ways , and her prejudices which remain , as they would do , strong to the last , are very clearly and graphically
set before us . Besides this , there are excellent descriptions of scenery , very good ,
word painting both of people and landscapes , and on the whole the book is worthy of the authoress ' s reputation . This is a good scene .
either " The side dark , onl trees y perceptible , glistening to sound . their with of bi senses water g drops by of the rain cold — fierce the full unseen in breath depths of wind on
tide which ; and blew as over they them set — out the upon the river , the running surrounding gleam an expanded of water their torcheand the swell of downward motion
against shining which under they had to strugg s , le , composed strong altogether a scene which no one there soon forgot . The boat had to return a second time to convey all
the its " passengers little And then party , the and went ni then g on ht in once calmed the more darkness , and , with a wild to the the fri solemn grave ghtened . tramp moon of looked a procession out of , the clouds into solemn Dryburghin the midst of her old monkish orchards
calm Throug pallid h the and great silent grass as -grown death ro itself , ofless , yet nave looking the white on like light an fell amazed in a specta sudden - .
tor of , the scene . _" The open gr breach ave stood in the read wet y as it had its been all prepared denned this and morning—a
the dark moonli , yawping ght . It was in one of grass the , small edge side chapels , overgrown glistening with in and ivywhich are just distinguishable from the main mass of the
ruin grass solemn ; here and the , mysterious torches blazed silence and these the dark solitary figures remains grouped of together the old house , and in of
a rolled God looked on to the at the north funeral the . face The of storm the heavens was over cleared ; the thunder the moon -clouds ; ; grew
brighter away . High against the sky stood out the Catherine window in its frame solemn of ivy , the loom solitary broken shafts bflashe and walls s of light from which which the magnified trees waved the shadow —and in lay a
those morsels g of the ancient y building which still retained a cover . The wind , rustled through the coldness trees , shaking the down faces great of the drops _moiirners of moisture , which of whom fell
began with a to startling feel the thrill of super tipon stitious awe . It was the onl , y some sound , save
352 Notices Of Books.
352 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1859, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011859/page/64/
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