20 MARCH 1926, Page 19

We , lice extremely the " biased opinions and hints "

at the end of Mrs. Jute's Concerning Corsica (Bodley Read, 10s. ad.) ; as for instance " Corte :—one important clean, hot and cold- watered hotel (syringe and nightingales in the garden) not cheap " and of another hotel " You must bring towards it a good will, a bottle of eau de Cologne and a packet of flea powder." These are practical hints which travellers too. rarely give us. But Concerning Corsica, with its buoyant and. brilliant style, is far more thane guide book; it is a joy and a thing of beauty as well as a repository of out-of-the-way information. It is news to us that the St. Helena codicils to Napoleon's will (" memories like exiled swallows returning to their former home . . . legacies to old servants in Ajaccio, an obscure Corsican shepherd and other humble folk ") have never been fulfilled. As Mrs. Juts says " Even the great dead cannot afford poor relations." This is a really charming volume, with arresting cubist illustrations in colour. Space permits us to give one sample only of the author's illumined phrases—this aboutthe Mediterranean—" blue as if made from the blood of gentians."