SOME BOOKS OF TUE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for renteto in other forms.] Months at the Lakes. By the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley. (James MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow. 55. net.)—It is not likely, we take it, that Canon Rawnsley, writing on the subject of the Lakes, their scenery, their natural history, on its non-technical side, and the manners and customs of their peoples, will ever fail to receive a welcome. He has a well-practised pen, and he writes with an enthusiasm for his subject that must make. its way with all readers. Most visitors to this region sec it, of necessity, for but a small part of the year—Canon Rawnsley assures us that the tourist's month, August, has given the weather an undeservedly bad name —and they will be glad to get as much notion as words can give of what it looks like at other times. With the life of the people they can have but a bare outside acquaintance ; and here it is pleasant to have a guide who knows it, so to speak, from the inside. July brings us to sheep-shearing, which is, of course, 'later than in the South ; and November to the shepherds' meeting at Mardale. Perhaps, if one had to name one of Canon Rawnsley's " Months" for preference, it would be this. Mardale is on the road to nowhere, though, of course, a pedestrian can make a route through it into the heart of the Lake Country, and it is probably as little changed as any place in the country,—the population, we see, by the latest authority, is under forty. Canon Rawnsley's volume will be a delight to many readers,—to those who may yet test the truth of his pictures, and to those who must be content with using them to call back the past.
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