THE TRAVELLER IN AUSTRIA.* Ma. BAKER in his, preface laments
the want of any compre- hensive book on Austria in the English language, and in the present volume he sets out to remedy the defect. He brings to the task an almost lifelong intimacy with his subject and a gigantic enthusiasm. And he is handsomely supported both by publisher and artist, for the book is excellently got up and illustrated by no fewer than forty-eight water-colour drawings. The task is a formidable one. The mere physical variety of Austria (the book leaves the Kingdom of Hungary untouched) is enormous. What mountain countries could be more different than are Tyrol, the Dolomites, and the Carpathians ? What territories more diverse in character and population than Slavonic Galicia, heir of the tragic heritage of Poland, and the Dalmatian coast, where Venetian tradition still dominates art and custom ? Nowhere, too, are progress and tradition brought into sharper contrast. Nowhere is the influence of the past more immediate and the complication of racial problems more acute and difficult of elucidation. A book must needs be comprehensive if it is to make a complete summary of all these elements, and Mr. Baker is not, it must be admitted, completely successful. He leads us through the country on a personally conducted tour, varying appropriate
• Austria: lier People and their Homelands. By James Baker. Illustrated by Dmald Maxwell. London : John Lane. [21s. net.l historical anecdote with description of scenery, local customs, and civil and religious institutions, and practical advice upon methods of travel. On one page you find a list of the diseases to which the waters of Marienbad are favourable ; on another a disquisition on the anthropological history of Styria or the Bukowina; on another a catalogue of the Dolomite Peaks; on another a sketch of the exploits of John Sobieski. It is very cleverly and completely done, but this guide-book method results in the author's learning being thrown rather pell-mell at the reader. Mr. Baker has, moreover, certain personal failings. His enthusiasm is rather too exuberant. According to him Austria is a paradise, not only in its natural beauties, but in the morality of its inhabitants and the perfection of its institutions. Indeed the only product of the country on which he ventures a word of criticism is the Vienna fiacre. A more serious fault is to be found in the matter of style. Now and then he is guilty of such atrocities as the following : " An excelTent example of the minute care and assiduity to neglect no detail and no source of knowledge, by the State, the Commune, and in some cases by the nobles, is to be seen near Budweis." Or, to take an instance from a tragic passage : "Then an awful determination seized upon the worried mother. She called the stepson to her in the forest, and taking him to an awful precipice, &c., &c." On the whole, however, the book may be commended as a most complete and careful guide-book, and a word must be said of Mr. Maxwell's illustrations. These cover a very wide field, and show especial skill in the handling of large sea and mountain scenes. But all are well planned and executed with so sensible an enjoyment that the mere glimpse of them almost sends one headlong to Thomas Cook's.
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