28 JULY 1888, Page 23

Between the °chits and the Forth, by David Beveridge (Black-

wood), of whose work, "Culross and Tulliallan," giving the topography and history of two Scotch parishes adjoining each other, we had occasion to speak very favourably a year or two ago as an excellent book of its class, is a description of a pretty though but little known and less traversed district of Scotland. The country between the Forth and the Ochils—or, strictly speaking, between the Stirling Bridge and the town of Aberdour—will pro- bably become a haunt of tourists and health-seekers when the bridge across the Forth at Queensferry has been opened to passenger traffic. Meanwhile, however, it is a terra incognita to almost every stranger except the bicyclist. And yet it is redolent of the ancient history of Scotland,—including, as it does, Inverkeithing, with its memories of Cromwell ; Loch Leven, with its memories of Mary ; and Dunfermline, with its memories of Malcolm Canmore and

Robert Bruce ; the Rumbling Bridge and the Cauldron Linn, which, as demonstrating what Scotland can boast of in the way of chasms and waterfalls, have been visited by hosts of Scotch pilgrims, including Burns. In this little book, also, Mr. Beveridge covers the ground he traversed in his previous work, already men- tioned, but, so to speak, with longer strides. Mr. Beveridge's style is a happy medium between the dull prose of the guide-book and the effusiveness of the ordinary "local " historian.