24 FEBRUARY 1883, Page 24

In the Black Forest, by Charles W. Wood (Bentley), is

a small volume recording the writer's impressions of the scenery and in- habitants of the part of Germany indicated in the title ; but the numerous illustrations, though in a curiously neat, foreign style of engraving, give a better idea of both than the letterpress. One of the most attractive incidents is on page 175, where he " admired, too, the coolness and contrivance of a tourist, evidently walking through the country, who had laid his knapsack on the ground, and having slung a net between two trees, was lying at ease therein, reading:Home favourite volume, and luxuriating in the shade of the firs, which kept out so well the heat and glare of the afternoon sun." We are left in doubt whether the tourist's "coolness" was of the body or the mind, but the vague style is characteristic of the book.