Letters from India and Kashmir. Written 1870; Illustrated and Annotated
1873. (George Bell and Sons.)—This is a charming book, of the kind which it is least easy to describe ; the intimate, the un- studied, which does not aim at producing novel effects, or making original reflections, but which reproduces the impressions of an intelli- gent observer, amid scenes of various and complicated interest. We do not know how this collection of thoughtful and amusing letters will strike readers who are familiar with the scenes, the people, and the systems which they describe ; but to us they seem the most explana- tory account of India which we have yet seen, and we never let slip an opportunity of reading on the subject. The letters which have reference to Kashmir are the most interesting, perhaps, because one knows so little about that romantic province ; and they introduce us to some charming natives, children, beasts, and birds. The Matra-. tions are admirable, the selection of their subjects is singularly happy, they show us exactly the things of which people who have not been in India always want to get a notion,—and in many instances they are highly humorous. Among the most remarkable are drawings of the Jumping Wells of Dehli, and the Tower of Silence, on Malabar Hill, at Bombay.
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