The Boys of Penrohn. By Mrs. G. Forsyth Grant, (W.
P. Nimmo, Hay, and Mitchell.)—More unreal boys than those of Mrs.
Forsyth Grant we never came across. It seems to be the fashion to treat boys more and more as men, and to discourse on their good looks, haughtiness, sneering manner, prettiness, graceful- ness, &e. The masters, too, are either white with passion or coldly courteous, and the head-master is over the ideal head- master, never appearing in class, yet seeming to know all his pupils off by heart. Boys and girls, except the hysterical ones, could only laugh at the excessively feminine idea our author has of the young men and the way they behave. Mrs. Grant's boys irresistibly remind us of those elegant creations of the artist in wax which adorn shop-windows. The only claim to notice The Boys of Penrohn has, is that of an example of the excessive use of the historic present. We have never seen the use of that much- abused tense carried to such an absurd extent before.
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