The conversation is, perhaps, the worst feature of all--for it follows the contemporary stage in adopting a conventional lingo which, as we know from private letters as early as Gray's and Walpole's, if not even as Chesterfield's and those of men and women older still, was _not_ the language of well-bred, well-educated, and intelligent persons at any time during the century.
As for the Fourth Estate of the novel--description--it had rarely been attempted even by the great masters.

In fact it has been pointed out as perhaps the one unquestionable merit of Mrs.Radcliffe that--following the taste for the picturesque which, starting from Gray and popularised by Gilpin, was spreading over the country--she did attempt to introduce this important feature, and did partly, in a rococo way, succeed in introducing it.

As for plot, that has never been our strong point--we seem to have been contented with _Tom Jones_ as payment in full of that demand.[17] [17] The frankness of the ingenious creator of Mr.Jorrocks should be imitated by 99 per cent.

of English novelists.

"The following story," says he of _Ask Mamma_, "does not involve the complication of a plot.