There is a fashion in travelling, as in every thing
else; and the centrifugal movement, that has just now attained its utmost force, impelling the mass of people seaward, projects numbers beyond the salt water boundary. Bath and Harrogate are forsaken for the Brunnens of Nassau ; the "wide and winding Rhine" was all the rage a season or two back; now holyday tourists steam it up "time dark rolling Danube ;" and since STANFIELD has sketched " the banks of the blue Moselle," landscape-painters have been swarming on them in search of picture-pollen. Now if, instead of visiting " foreign parts," where the strangeness more than the beauty of the scene strikes the unaccustomed eye, and of which the greatest enjoyment to many is that of being able to talk of having seen them, the adventurous Cockney-folk were to make a six weeks' tour along the Wye and through South 'Wales, we opine that not a few of them would find more real gratification and enjoy themselves more heartily than abroad. We have come to this conclusion from looking through Roscos's Wanderings and Excursions in South Wales ;'a goodly octavo of description, with a slight infusion of sentiment, personal, historical, and antiquarian ; illustrated by nearly fifty views, by DAVID COX, and other artists. The mixture of the rural and romantic, the wild and the lovely, in the scenery of South Wales—its mountains and waterfalls, its rained castles and abbeys enriching the humbler beauties of the country—the hamlet nestling in a bed of foliage, or the old- fashioned town struggling up the cliff—make the Englishman feel at home among the grandest scenes ; and the speech of the natives is just sufficiently unintelligible to give the requisite sense of novelty. The views we will warrant to be faithful : their so- briety and homeliness carry conviction to the mind ; and their freshness bespeaks the atmosphere and effects of light and shade to be genuine. Those who are unluckily obliged to content them- selves with fireside travelling, will find Mr. Roscos's well-rounded periods roll smoothly over the mind's ear; albeit he is not alto- gether free from the defect of vagueness,—being content with describing his own sensations, instead of presenting vivid pictures.
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