m»« « ■■■'"«»■■»i :11 i
Among the old*r croup* of English
fiction writer* of the present day
hone 1* more arttetie in hi* treatment
of certain period* of En*lt»h history
and of local legends and none tate*
more *ucce*tive!y ana altogether
satisfactorily backgrounds In favorite
rts of England than Blr Arthur
Quiller-Couch, or ”Q.” Hl* special
field is the southwest of England,
Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. His
home has for some years been at
Fowey, a Cornish seacoast village.
In a long literary career he has pro
duced many novel# and short stories,
most of them with Devonshire or
Cornish settings. One of his shorter
romances, and one of his most de
lightful, is "The Weetcotes,’’ a story
of the Napoleonic Way. The scene
Is Axcester Parish, in Somerset,
where the Weetcotes of Bayfield
House have in I*lo been for about
180 years the leading county family.
The family Is now reduced 'to three
middle-aged, unmarried persons. Bn
dymlon Westcote is head of the fam
ily. Justice of the peace for the coun
ty, major of Its yeomanry, guard
ian of the poor, governor of the
grammar school, chairman of feof
fees and, most important of all, in
1810 commissary for the French
prisoners quartered at Axceeter on pa
role. Narcissus Westcote is a dream
er and a scholar, a gq*d deal of an
archeologist, whose chief interest is
the fine Roman pavement discovered
during some repairs beneath the floor
of Bayfield House. Dorothea West
cote is Just a well born English old
maid of she early nineteenth century,
•8 years old, neither handsome nor
gifted, fond of her garden, submis
sive to her brothers, a good house
keeper and a creditable hostess; yet
the romance Is concerned with her.
