Literary Gossip.

LITERARY GOSSIP .

y ^ 2 ^ s \ A / \ A A / 7 GRAND y \ JJ[ " . [ LODGE JrJ VALIBRARY ¥ i ^^ 00 /

" li / f ^ 2-omc * the Shires" ( London : Weir and Knight ) is the title Miss JJ -L Rosa Mackenzie Kettle has given to a very charming story recently published in a handsome five shilling volume . Miss Kettle will be known to many of our readers as a writer of numerous graceful novels , while those to whom she may be a stranger will do well to at once make her literary acquaintance . We speak from experience , having with pleasure and with

profit read almost everything Miss Kettle has written . A refined , accomplished , nay , intellectual woman , the tone of her works is such as to completely disarm the criticism even of those who hold novel reading . to be a crime . We remember nothing written by Miss Kettle that any person , much less herself , could wish unwritten . To read some of her books is to be considerably enlightened as to the beauty which exists in human nature , in heather-purpled hills and moorlands , in grey crags and verdure-clad mountains , in whimpling

burns and rushing torrents , m old ocean in calm and m storm , and in . the mysterious heavens . While some writers—and presumably lady writers—are eternally striving to hold the weaker up to the ridicule of the sterner sex , painting them even a shade deeper than black , Miss Kettle appeals eloquently in their behalf , faithfully depicting their occasionally noble self-abnegation ; their heroic faith in those against whom the hand of every man may be turned ; their angelic aid in pain and sickness ; their lovestrong as death and greater

, than the grave can weaken . This writer does not draw upon her imagination for her subjects by any means , they are in the main taken from life . In the present volume the reader , whoever he may bo , hig h , or low , gentle or simple , will find much to interest , to inform—in a word , speaking generally , to delight him . Whether in Leicestershire , or at the grey old tower in the beautiful border laud marking the geographical union of the kindred counties

of the rose and thistle , or the City of the Seven Hills , whose history is a prose romance , and whose ruins are romantic poetry , the place itself rises before us in all its natural loveliness . Figuratively speaking , Miss Kettle does not erect a literary signboard , as in the days of the ancient drama , and write on it " This is such-and-such a place . " She reproduces her scene in all its glowingcolour , in its li ght and in its shade . The story before us is a deeply interesting one . The plot is cleverly worked out and there are many excellent situations .

The character of Rotha is beyond compare pretty . She is as loveable a creation as any we know in all the wide range of English fictions . Margaret L'Estrange , too , though she lias to tell her own story , is very charming , while we confess we should dearly like to make our bow to La Contessa and Aunt Joanna . Guy L'Estrange is a rare good specimen of the English gentleman ; and Leone Petralva , though he is a rhapsodist , is very much to our liking . There are numerous other well-sketched characters which might be referred to , but we think we have said enough . " My Home in the Shires " is one of the

most charming books ot the season , and should be m the hands of all who are possessed of an aspiration to be considered capable of conceiving a perception of , and a love for , the beautiful in nature , in art , and in their fellow men and women . Tho volume above alluded to bears the following dedication : All' Onorevole Signor Carlo Pepoli , senatore del regno d'ltalia , etc ., etc ., etc ., e dedicato questo libra , con respetto affettnosissimo , dall' autor ' e . " It may be remarked the illustrious dedicatee recently died at Bologna , vide the Masonic Magazine for March .