Some Books of the Week
A FINE piece of history is Mr. Shan Bullock's After Sixty Years (Sampson Low, 8s. 6d.), and a fine and faithful picture it draws of the tranquil but iron-hard life led by Lough Erne. side peasants and small farmers in the days when an almost feudal landlordism was a power in the land. With a sure and practised pen and the intimate knowledge of a native of the country, the author describes the " countless holdings, none of them more than forty acres in size, most of them much less, all of a pattern, cut into small fields by criss. cross hedges, where some decent man tried to serve God and country by rearing a long family, voting as he was bid, and somehow contriving to pay taxes, tithes, dues and the rent without fail. All that great tract of country belonged to the old Earl, and all upon it, in body if not in soul." In some sense the book is an epitome of Ireland's life and of its problems—social, economic, racial, political and religious, and Sir Horace Plunkett in his foreword vouches that the whole is a true picture. " The human interest of the book fascinates me," adds the same authority. It will fascinate all who are fortunate enough to read it.
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