_229th ed., folio, 2 vols._ (_Sour and Taxwell, 85s._).
All persons interested in this entrancing subject will welcome the new
edition of Mr. Blewitt's famous work. The book is one which should be found
on every shelf throughout the country, and is undoubtedly, in its
combination of erudition and artistic merit, one of the masterpieces of
English literature. It has been well described by a more competent critic
as one which "it is difficult to take up when once you have put it down,"
and in this judgment most readers will, we believe, concur.
It seems needless for us to say anything about so well-known a work, and to
say anything new is, we believe, impossible. Mr. Blewitt is invariably
happy in his choice of subject, and in this treatise on _Real Property_ his
sparkling wit, his light style and clearness of expression do ample justice
to the perennial freshness of his subject. The reader is swiftly carried
from situation to situation and thrill follows thrill with daring rapidity.
The plot is of the simplest, but worked out with surprising skill, while
the events are related with that vivid imagination which the subject
demands. Who is there that does not feel a glow of exaltation and rejoice
with the heir when he comes, upon reversion, into the property from which
he has been so long excluded? Mr. Blewitt treats this incident with a sense
of romance and picturesqueness of language reminiscent of the ballad of
"The Lord of Lynn." In its facts the ballad bears a striking resemblance to
those so graphically described by our author, but in point of execution
lacks the true breath of poetic inspiration which pervades Mr. Blewitt's
book.
Nor is his work wanting in pathos. There are few who will not sympathise
with the hero when he discovers that the life-estate of the fair widow whom
he adores with all the fierce yearnings of his passionate soul is subject
to a collateral limitation to widowhood. Mr. Blewitt's silence on the
disappointment which embittered his spirit and the doubts which tormented
his mind is more eloquent than any soliloquy of _Hamlet_.
It is not however in description but in characterisation that Mr. Blewitt
is pre-eminent. We know of nothing in works of this nature to equal the
skilful psychological analysis, the sympathy of treatment and the fidelity
to nature with which the author draws line by line the character of Q. The
description of him as seised in fee simple is a touch of genius. We can
remember nothing in the English language to compare with this unless it be
that brilliant passage in which Mr. Blewitt sketches in a few lightning
strokes the character of Richard Roe, a man at once pugnacious,
overbearing, litigious and utterly regardless of truth and honesty.
The learned editors have rendered a great service to the cause of learning
in publishing this new edition. The editing is very creditable to English
scholarship. The additional matter is a new note on page 1069, in which the
reader is referred to an article in a recent number of the _Timbuctoo Law
Review_, which, in fairness to the editor (of _Real Property_), is not, of
course, quoted here. The student will, we have no doubt, feel himself fully
recompensed by this new matter for the price of the new volumes and the
depreciation of the 228th edition.
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[Illustration: NERVES ON THE GREEN.
_Irascible Golfer._ "CONFOUND IT! WHAT _IS_ THAT INFERNAL OIL-ENGINE OR
SOMETHING THAT BEGINS THUMPING WHENEVER I AM PUTTING?"
_Caddie._ "I THINK IT MUST BE T'OTHER GENTLEMAN'S 'EART, SIR."]
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"NEW MOTOR-BUS SERVICES.
Residents in the area between the county town and ---- are now able to
do their shopping at either place with the maximum of inconvenience so
far as travel is concerned."--_Provincial Paper._
Just as in London.
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