The Lone Shieling, or The Authorship of the Canadian Boat Song, with other Literary and Historical Sketches, by G. M. Fraser (8vo, pp. xii, 242. Aberdeen : Wm. Smith & Sons. 1908. 45. nett), makes a pleasant handful of reprinted essays, chiefly on Aberdeen subjects, such as the Town Council's connection with literature, Sir Walter Scott's attitude a little aloof towards the city, the Fintray Chapbooks, the place-name 'Aberdeen,' the market cross, and celebrities like Gordon of Rothiemay, Peter Buchanan, James Beattie, and John Longmuir. The title-giving paper presents insinuating persuasions for Mr. Fraser's conclusion that Professor John Wilson wrote the boat song, with its haunting melancholy of reminiscence, when * Mountains divide us and a waste of seas.'

Parallels from Wilson's other poems are adduced, which are not without distinct force as evidence, in spite of the fact that this noble piece originally appeared in a Blackwood article which Wilson did not write. It is always hard to establish authorship on internal evidence. Mr. Fraser wins hearty sympathy at least for his zealous advocacy of a claim for Wilson which Wilson himself never made. Easy in style, and with a local patriotism well ballasted with literary and historical lore, Mr. Fraser's volume is a north country collection worth making and worth having.

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