North Lancashire. The _patois_ problem is not the least serious of the
many difficulties the novelist encounters. I have chosen to give a
broad outline of Cumbrian dialect, such as bears no more exact
relation to the actual speech than a sketch bears to a finished
picture. It is right as far as it goes.

A word as to the background of history. I shall look for the sympathy
of the artist and the forgiveness of the historian in making two or
three trifling legal anachronisms that do not interfere with the
interest of the narrative. The year of the story is given, but the aim
has been to reflect in these pages the black cloud of the whole period
of the Restoration as it hung over England's remotest solitudes. In my
rude sketch of the beginnings of the Quaker movement I must disclaim
any intention of depicting the precise manners or indicating the exact
doctrinal beliefs of the revivalists. If, however, I have described
the Quakers as singing and praying with the fervor of the Methodists,
it must not be forgotten that Quietism was no salient part of the
Quakerism of Fox; and if I have hinted at Calvinism, it must be
remembered that the "dividing of God's heritage" was one of the causes
of the first schism in the Quaker Society.

H.C.

New Court, Lincoln's Inn.




THE SHADOW OF A CRIME.