⸺ SOME IRISH YESTERDAYS. Eleventh thousand. (Longmans). 3s. 6d. Fifty-one illustr. by E. Œ. Somerville. 1908.
Admirable illustrations of Connemara scenery, clever sketches of “natives” (usually of the lowest type). Light magazine sketches written in clever, racy style. Subjects: Holidays in Aran and Connemara and Carbery, picnics, country house anecdotes, superficial studies of peasants in Connemara and Cork. “In Sickness and in Health” pays a tribute to the strength of the marriage bond in Ireland.
⸺ DAN RUSSELL, THE FOX. Pp. 340. (Methuen). 6s. 1911.
Miss Rowan comes over to Ireland and takes “Lake View,” in the midst of a hunting district in S. Munster. She falls in love—for the time—with John Michael, handsome, and the most valiant of huntsmen, but a child of nature whose whole mind is absorbed in hounds and horses. Hence complications. The Author’s usual pictures of hunting scenes and happy-go-lucky country gentry. Mrs. Delanty, the sharp and devious widow, is a curious portrait. Dan Russell is scarcely more than a minor character in the piece. It is a story about which we cannot speak favourably.
⸺ IN MR. KNOX’S COUNTRY. (Longmans). 6s. Eight full-page illustr. in chalk. 1915.
Eleven sketches of the same type as the Experiences of an Irish R.M., with some new dramatis personæ in the old localities.
SQUIRE, Charles.
⸺ THE BOY HERO OF ERIN. Pp. 240. (Blackie). 2s. 6d. Handsome cover. Four good illustr. by A. A. Dixon. 1907.
The Cuchulainn Saga told in simple and clear, but somewhat unemotional and matter-of-fact, style. Sources: Miss Hull’s Cuchulainn Saga and Miss Winifred Faraday’s Cattle Raid of Cuailgne (q.v.). The Author holds Cuchulainn to be a hero “not less brave and far more chivalrous than any Greek or Trojan” (Pref.), and thinks that the ancient Gael “invented the noble system of conduct which we call courtesy.”