Mr. Hugh Walpole writes a little preface to The Secret
Valley (Warne, 2s. 6d.), now in its second edition. Mr. Nicholas Size has, he thinks, succeeded in capturing the mysterious atmosphere of the English Lake Country. The little book is an essay in romantic I istory and deals with the years which followed 1066 when the r'iormans maintained a guerrilla warfare with the stout mountaineers and dalesmen, which cost them " one army after another until the dread and mys- terious mountains of Cumberland came to be regarded with horror by the invaders." A slight thread of story runs through the eighty-four pages, but it is the filial love and minute know- ledge of Lakeland which makes the book an ideal pocket companion for the sort of tourist who " walks alone "- avoiding highways through this enchanted country.
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