historical figures and episodes. Scott would have been a great man
if he had written no novel but "The Abbott" (one of his second best),
and no part of "The Abbott" but the scene in which Mary signs away
her crown. Mr. Quiller-Couch almost entirely avoids such attempts,
and even Mr. Conan Doyle only dips into them timidly. There is, one
has been told, a theory that the romancist has no right to picture
history in this way. But he makes his rights when he does it as
Scott did it.

Since "The Splendid Spur," Mr. Quiller-Couch has published nothing
in book form which can be considered an advance on his best novel,
but there have appeared by him a number of short Cornish sketches,
which are perhaps best considered as experiments. They are
perilously slight, and where they are successful one remembers them
as sweet dreams or like a bar of music. All aim at this effect, so
that many should not be taken at a time, and some (as was to be
expected with such delicate work) miss their mark. It might be said
that in several of these melodies Mr. Quiller-Couch has been writing
the same thing again and again, determined to succeed absolutely, if
not this time then the next, and if not the next time then the time
after. In one case he has succeeded absolutely. "The Small People,"
is a prose "Song of the Shirt." To my mind this is a rare piece of
work, and the biggest thing for its size that has been done in
English fiction for some years.

These sketches have been called experiments. They show (as his books
scarcely show) that Mr. Quiller-Couch can feel. They suggest that he
may be able to do for Cornwall what Mr. Hardy has done for Dorset--
though the methods of the two writers are as unlike as their
counties. But that can only be if in filling his notebook with these