Scott centenaries are still going on, and we want to
know why so many speakers think it necessary to abuse " Anne of Geier- stein." Did they ever read that story ? It is always mentioned as the last most melancholy evidence of Sir Walter's failing powers, and always so mentioned, we believe, by people who never read it. It would have made the fortune of an unknown story- teller, and is perhaps the best purely sensational novel in exist- ence. Its descriptions of mountain scenery are wonderful, and although it is not to be compared with "Quentin Durward" or the " Fortunes of Nigel," we doubt if there exists in fiction not written by Scott or Dumas such descriptions of historic characters as those of Margaret of Anjou, of King Rene, of Charles of Bur- gundy. And we doubt also whether any other man could have given the same impression of the Holy Vehme, though we admit that to produce it Scott employs machinery of the vulgarest and most melo- dramatic kind. His hero is a lay figure, but so is his hero in every story ; and as for his heroine, nobody ever claimed for Scott a comprehension of women.
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