Hollowdell Grange

This is one of Fenn's earliest books. The theme is that a boy from London goes down to stay in the country with his cousins, where the way of life is so very different, and challenging, from all that he had known in the great city. The descriptions of country life of those days are very well done, but we must make one warning--that many of the countrymen we meet in the story speak with a strong Lincolnshire accent, and the author has done his best to represent these sounds with what must very often look like mistakes in transcription. There are all sorts of country situations to be encountered, from working with animals, to meeting the various village characters, to a near drowning, and even, at the very end to an attempted rescue, one that failed, of a drowning boy caught in a sluice on the beach. According to Wikipedia: "George Manville Fenn (January 3, 1831, Pimlico - August 26, 1909, Isleworth) was a British writer. He worked as a teacher in Lincolnshire, until he became printer, editor and publisher of various magazines. He had eight children with his wife Susanna Leake, whom he had married in 1855. Most of his work consists of adventure stories for young readers, featuring Explorers, Smugglers, young Adventurers and Seamen. His adult novels offer critical social commentary on Victorian England, especially reconsidering economic questions."