15 DECEMBER 1883, Page 23

In the Hebrides. By C. F. Gordon Cumming. (Chatto and

Windus.)—This is almost wholly a reprint of a work published some eight years ago. The book consists principally of a string of legendary tales and traditions of the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland, interspersed with descriptions of the scenery and people. A certain want of the arrangement and lucidity that characterise Miss Gordon Cumming's later productions is noticeable, and a little of the "gush" that travellers are so prone to indulge in, but which is so pleasantly absent from the pages of "At Home in Fiji" and "Fire Fountains," is also occasionally to be met with in the present volume. Nevertheless, the book is very readable and interesting, and some of the author's comparisons between the folk-lore of Western Scotland and that of the East are striking and instructive. To the more recent history of this remote portion of Britain some allusions are made, and among other events, the famous "Sunday War" of last June is described at length, without, however, any ex- planation being offered of this curious phase in the social annals of Gaelio Scotland.