CURRENT LITERATURE.
Convivial Caledonia. 13y Robert Kenapt. (Chapman and Hall.) — The fuller title of this volume is "Inns and Taverns of Scotland and some Famous People who have Frequented Them," and it is easy to imagine the character of the contents. We have first some stories of "old-time convivialities," the stories of Edinburgh, Highland, and other inns, and, of course, the experiences of Robert Burns and the Ettrick Shepherd. After these comes a literary chapter on " Sir Walter Scott's Landlords and Landladies." Some of these things are amusing enough, though the conscience of mankind is beginning to doubt whether it is right to be amused at drinking stories. The " Islay Parliament," a sort of County Council, seems to have had a certain pre-eminence in hard drinking. For the dinner the liquor account was 3i dozen of whisky punch, 20 bottles of rum toddy, 18 bottles of porter, 13 of port, 3 of sherry, and 2 of brandy. Unfortunately, we are not told the number of the guests. —Old-World Scotland, by T. F. Henderson (T. Fisher Unwin),, goes over something of the same ground, but has a much wider range of subject. It begins with a chapter about wine, and follows this up with another on " Usquebaugh," a liquor which is first hoard of about the end of the fifteenth century. This was in the Lowlands ; in the Highlands it had probably been in use before. At a great funeral in 1616 more than £4,00 (Scots) was spent on whisky. Other articles of meat and drink are treated of, and in chap. viii. we get to "Scottish Inns," but do not find very much about them. We pass on to more serious matters, among them to a "New Light on the Darnley Murder." What this "new light" shows us is pretty much what most people saw by the old, that Bothwell had the chief hand in the murder, and that Mary was an accomplice.
But the case is ably argued by Mr. Henderson. This is a new paper the others have, in substance, been already published.
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