25 AUGUST 1900, Page 24

Over the Alps on a Bicycle. By Elizabeth Robins Pennell.

Illustrated by Joseph Pennell. (T. Fisher Unwin. ls.)—Mrs. Pennell's achievement of crossing nine Alpine passes on a bicycle . does not seem altogether an enviable one. She says that she " was scorched by the sun, stifled by the dust, drenched by the rain." Perhaps the pleasure of some of the splendid coasts, and, above all, that of record-breaking, may have made up to her for the discomfort. One wishes that she had not chosen such a jocular style of writing about her experiences. Mr. Pennell's sketches are very pretty. He has been most successful in those where there is least contrast of black and white. The one of Dijon is specially worth notice.