THE TREASURE HOUSE OF BELGIUM. By Emile Cammaerts. (Macmillan. 21s.)
A TRAVELLER into foreign countries learns far more if he knows the language. Acquaintance with the art, literature and ethos of the place teaches him more still. This sumptuous volume is designed to give to the English traveller in Belgium the sort of knowledge that he would bring to a survey of
remote districts in his own land. It teaches him what is characteristic of the Fleming, and what of the Walloon ; how Belgium, despite the clash of races, is, and for longer than you think has been, a unity ; and for what he should look out. Where guide-books begin, this book ends. No information is given concerning the hotels of Brussels, Ostend or Bruges ; and Rubens is significantly omitted from the list of painters whose works have been reproduced in the excellent illustrations. Perhaps homeliness is the word best fitted to describe the impression made upon the foreigner by M. Cammaerts' text. It is not a word of which the traveller through Belgian cities of sophisticated urbanity is
often reminded, but such a traveller had best keep to his .Murray or Baedeker. The rest, whether they are set upon
Belgium or no, will find here much to amuse them, and will remember that while they come and go through throngs of itinerant postcard sellers an ancient civilization steadily endures.
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