The Gypsies of the Danes' Dike. A Story of Hedge-side
Life in England in 1855. By G. S. Phillips. (Sampson Low, Son, and Maraton.)—The author, who is better known by the sobriquet of January Searle, was, it seems, at one time lecturer to a Yorkshire literary association; and in that character undertook to throw a chain of libraries and schools for adults along the eastern seaboard of Yorkshire. While at Flam- borough Head he formed a connection with a colony of gypsies encamped on the famous Dane's Dike, and was actually permitted to pitch a tent among them. The result of this experience he has embodied in this tale, and we know so little aboutthe gypsies that it excites hopes which it does not fulfil. He has so blended truth and falsehood together that we really learn nothing from the book, and the pictures of the Rev. Jeremiah Grimes and the author's friend Mr. Prof/awake show how easy it is to be a very intolerant lover of toleration. The literary episodes, too, "although they were not inserted without design and a high inten- tion," are certainly out of place. The author has also identified himself too much with the hero of his tale, which always makes either the former seem egotistic or the latter a stick. Mr. Phillips has chosen the latter fault, and the way the hero sidles from his gypsy to his civilized sweetheart, from Myra to Violet, is quite imbecile. Still amid all its faults the book is redeemed by the fact that it is evident in every page that the author writes about gypsies and fishermen from
an intimate personal knowledge of them. This makes the book interesting, and even valuable. If Mr. Phillips had chosen to give us a simple narrative of his personal experiences instead of a romance, he would have given us a book still more interesting and valuable.
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