REVIEWS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 13, 29 September 1909, Page 46

REVIEWS.

Rose of the Wilderness. S. iiJ Crockett. (London: Hodder anl Stoughton.) Mr. Crockett has written nothing so stirring or so amusing as this for a long time. It is in these delineations of primitive Scottish life and characte® that Mr. Crockett is seen at his very, best. But we think the Henry Gordons of this narrative, and the frail Lila, both unreal and a trifle too good for this wicked world. The humorous element, if -anything, preponderates, and finds its chief exponent in the person of Muckle Tamson, Henry Gordon’s chief herd, who is as great an adept in the use of a leaping pole, and as injudicious in the use of it, as the historical Irishman at Donnybrook Fair. The book is worth buying, if only for the account of the reception accorded the bailiff at Muckle Tamson’s hands, when he came to Gordon’s farm to serve the writ that was to leave Tamson’s master and “The Rose” homeless. There is much that cannot be reconciled in the narrative. But the action of the story goes with vim from start to finish, and leaves the reader in such high good humour that to criticise would be ungrateful. Andi when once the reader learns to look upon Mr. Crockett as a sort of Western Magi, he is content to accept the irreconcilables. not only. with equanimity, but relish.