“Because of its very evident qualities of naturalness and sincerity this little volume should escape the limbo which awaits the major part of commemorative literature and be preserved among those works classed as human documents.”
+ N Y Evening Post p8 N 6 ’20 160w
“Told with a simple and natural beauty of language fitting for such a theme. Incidentally it gives a graphic picture of revolutionary and pre-revolutionary days.”
+ Outlook 126:690 D 15 ’20 50w + Survey 45:329 N 27 ’20 180w
PEAKE, C. M. A. Eli of the downs. *$2 (2c) Doran
20–18768
The narrator of the story found Eli as an old man in his cottage, Beulah, on the downs, where he spends his last days carving fiddles, and surrounded by the few treasures he had garnered from his wanderings over the earth. He had always been a rare character, this shepherd, with a rich inner life. Early in life he had married a mate worthy of him, but it was a short happiness, and then the young widower took to wandering. For some eight years he followed the sea and saw many lands. Then it was surveying and ranching in Canada where an old Chinese cook instructed him in the wisdom of Confucius and Lao Tsu, but with failing health he turned his steps once more to England. At Beulah cottage, lonely to the last, but emanating a silent influence for good over the neighborhood, he ended his days in peace.
“The author cannot leave his characters to speak their mind, he must speak it for them, and even reinforce their statements with a kind of running commentary and explanatory notes which are very tiring to keep up with.” K. M.
− Ath p211 F 13 ’20 280w Cleveland p105 D ’20 60w