"Knocknagow is the national Irish novel. To love the "Homes of Tipperary" is to love what is purest and strongest and raciest and best in Ireland. There is awkwardness in many of Kickham's chapters, but what strength in the best! Matt the Thresher is for Ireland as much a national figure as for England any in Copperfield; and the rural scene has the richness, often, of Blackmore's self. In the figure of the honoured piper, there is a touch of the authentic, traditional pride that runs, a golden thread through the rustic homespun."