In the Shires, by Sir Randal H. Roberts, Bart. (F.
V. White and Co.), is described by its author as "a sporting novel," and is neither better nor worse than most stories by disciples of the late Mr. Whyte. Melville. There is in it plenty of hard riding, brandy and soda- water, cigars, but sarcely one unmitigated scoundrel,—for Henry Cavelli, the bad young man of the story, who forges a cheque and commits other enormities, dies of doing one good action, while his eider, abettor, and mentor, Christopher Dicy, is simply an adventurer who, under happier circumstances, would have made a respectable billiard-marker. The ladies in the story, young and old, are not in any way notable ; but then, none of them is specially "fast." One wonders, however, if there is really to be found in life, even in sporting life, such an idiotic male creature as " Baby " Brantford.
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