Anyone who knows Switzerland will delight in Mr. G. R.
de Beer's engaging and well-illustrated hook on Early Travellers in the. Alps (Sidgwick and Jackson, 10s. 6d.). From the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century the flow of tourists to Switzerland steadily increased, and England was well represented among them by Coryat, John Evelyn, Bishop Burnet, Addison, Archdeacon Coxe, and Wordsworth. B-ct Alpine climbing for sport or for scientific purposes developed slowly. A party of Englishmen under Pococke and Windham in 1741 seem to have been the first visitors to climb the mountains above Chamonix, much to the surprise of the natives. Windham wrote a pamphlet describing the adventure and attributed its success to steady walking and frequent halts for refreshment. The Swiss themselves, however, laid the foundations of Alpine study, and the labours of men like De Luc, Bourrit, and De Saus.sure, who climbed Mont Blanc in 1787, are admirably described. To the earlier history of the Alps Mr. J. E. Tyler has made a most valuable contribution in his monograph on The Alpine Passes in the Middle Ages (962-1250) (Oxford : Blackwell, 8s. 6d.), which embodies much material that is new to English students. His account of the routes taken by Genoese and Venetian traders carrying Levantine goods to the fairs in France and Germany is of special interest.
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