H B>oem on tbe Crofter 



THE HEATHER ON FIRE, 



BY MATHILDE BLIND. PRICE is. 



" A subject of our own time fertile in what is pathetic and awe-inspiring, and free 

 from any taint of the vulgar and conventional. . . . Positive subject-matter, the 

 emotion which inheres in actual life, the very sruile and the very tear and heart-pang, 

 are, after all, precious to poetry, and we have them here. ' The Heather on Fire v may 

 possibly prove something of a new departure, and one that was certainly not super- 

 fluous. . . . Even apart from the fascination of its subject-matter, the poem is developed 

 with spirit and energy, with a feeling for homely truth of character and treatment, 

 and with a generally pervasive sense of beauty." Athenaeum. 



" Miss Blind has chosen for her new poem one of those terrible Highland clearances 

 which stain the history of Scotch landlordism. Though her tale is a fiction, it is too 

 well founded on fact. . . . It may be said generally of the poem that the most difficult 

 scenes are those in which Miss Blind succeeds best ; and on the whole we are inclined 

 to think that its greatest and most surprising success is the picture of the poor old 

 soldier, Bory, driven mad by the burning of his wife." Academy. 



" A subject which has painfully pre-occupied public opinion is, in the poem entitled 

 ' The Heather on Fire,' treated with characteristic power by Miss Blind. . . . Both as 

 a narrative and descriptive poem, 'The Heather on Fire' is equally remarkable." 

 Horning Post. 



" A poem remarkable for beauty of expression and pathos of incidents will be found 

 in "The Heather on Fire." Exquisitely delicate are the touches with which the progress 

 of this tale of true love is delineated up to its consummation amid the simple rejoicings of 

 the neighbourhood ; and the flight of years of married life and daily toil, as numerous 

 as those of their courtship, is told in stanzas full of music and soul. . . This tale 

 is one which, unless we are mistaken, may so affect public feeling as to be an effectual 

 bar to similar human clearings in future." Leeds Mercury. 



"Literature and poetry are never seen at their best save in contact with actual life. 

 This little book abounds in vivid delineation of character, and is redolent with tbe 

 noblest human sympathy." Newcastle Daily Chronicle. 



"The Heather on Fire" is a poem that is rich not only in power and beauty but 

 in that " enthusiasm of humanity which stirs and moves us, and of which so much 

 contemporary verse is almost painfully deficient. . . . Miss Blind is not a mere poetic 

 trifler who considers that the best poetry is that written by the man who has nothing 

 to say but can say that nothing gracefully. . . . We can best describe the kind of her 

 success by noting the fact that while engaged in the perusal of her book we do not 

 say "What a fine poem !" but "What a terrible story I" or more probably still say 

 nothing at all but read on and on under the spell of a great horror and an overpowering 

 pity. Poetry of which this can be said needs no other recommendation." The 

 Manchester Examiner and Times. 



" A poem recently published in London (' The Heather on Fire ; a Tale of the High- 

 land Clearances ') is declared, in one of the articles which have appeared in the German 

 press on the Scottish Land Question, ' to be based on terrible truth and undoubted real 

 horrors; giving, in noblest poetical language and thrilling words, a description which 

 ought to be a spur of action to thinking statesmen.' "North British Daily MaiL 



London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row, 



