TWELVE MONTHS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE.*
A GOOD book of travels is always pleasant to read, for those who 'have and for those who have not seen the places themselves. For amusement, as distinguished from information, it is even plea- santer to read of the places we know than of those we have never seen ; but we can recommend this volume to either class of readers, whether they wish to revive pleasant memories, or to get intelligible though slight sketches of what they perhaps hope one day to visit. The book is full of fun, of little adventures, told with an arch quietness which doubles their point ; and the descriptions of men and things — of a Sicilian garden, a group of Italian or Tyrolese peasants, a waterfall or a -sunset—are given with an evident sense of the beautiful, which makes us feel as if we, too, were in the sunny South, "where, basking in the sun, or reclining in the cool shade, half-intoxicated by the beauty which nature and art combine to fling around in careless profusion, one finds that mere existence is a pleasure." He who has coasted the Mediterranean in a steamer of the Mes- sageries in fine weather, will here live over again a pleasant past, when he reads how "we progressed [from Marseilles to Messina] in a satisfactory and unaccountable manner," though "the captain was never visible except at breakfast and dinner, no one was ever heard giving any orders, none of the men had the remotest idea of the names of any of the islands we passed, and the sole occupation of the sailors seemed to consist in making brooms out of birch-twigs and in washing stockings." Nor will he fail to recognise old acquaintances, in genere at least, in the two young Belgian diplomatists, the Chevalier and the Count, "slender, doll-like individuals," with a knowledge of English which enabled one of them, when an unhappy Frenchman had to retire from treakfa.st, though the sea was like a mill-pond, to observe, " Ah, he is mountain ! He is hill ! In English you say hill, mountain ! Is it not so ?" And then there was a Commissaire des Posies on board, who gave exact information about everything, only it turned out to be all quite wrong, and whose counterpart probably some of us have met. They land at Messina, and we have bright pictures of those common sights which never tire, but are always new,—tie fiddler dancing to his own fiddle, while a ragged, sun- burnt urchin, "with one of those wonderfully sweet smiles which light up the countenances of the Italians like their own enchant- ing sunshine," collects soldi ; the black-eyed women in all the streets, leaning against the door-ways, knitting, idling, orgossiping ; bronzed men smoking and chattering ; chestnut-sellers entreating the bystanders to taste and see if the rich brown chestnuts roast- ing in their pans were not truly" buonissime ;" the Church of San Gregorio, with its exquisite mosaics inside, and its view from the terrace outside ; "the town of Messina lies below, the Straits beyond, and at the other side of them rises the beautiful range of the Calabrian mountains, the distant ones capped with snow ; Aspromonte is visible, rather to the left, and Scylla and Charybdis can just be descried in the. distance,"—not quite accurate as to Charybdis, which is in the Straits themselves, but a pretty picture.
The authoress goes from Sicily to Malta, Naples, Rome, and Venice, everywhere gathering flowers. In the Tyrol she has another of the little "scenes" which she describes With such quiet fan, and tells us how the man who drove them from Meran to the Botzen station took her for the lady's-maid, because she sat -on the coach-box ; how he made love to her in a very amusing manner, suggesting that she should recommend him as a courier to the "excellencies," if not admirals, inside the carriage, and she had to explain that, though "excellencies," they were not admirals, being all ladies, and an admiral being a lord who lived in a great ship ; and how he gallantly risked his character as a fast driver in order to lengthen the moments for enjoying the society of his fair companion. It was in these regions that Miss Osborne heard an English party vainly trying to make the waiter xmderstand that they wanted hot water, and agreeing, in solemn conclave, that not kalt-wasser, but eis-trasser, would be the effective words. And she presently tells how she once heard a little Englishwoman, who was pointing out a portrait to a French lady, asking, " Croyez-vous que c'est comme?" And on another occasion, an acquaintance observed to an Italian lady, "whose politeness could hardly conceal her * Twelve Months in Southern Europe. By Edith Osborne (Mrs. Blake). With illnatraticaus by the Author. London : Chapman and Hall. puzzled astonishment, 'Ah, Madame, quand je semi fatiguee, je semi d'or !' " At Corfu, the beauties of the scenery, and the absurdities of the "odds and ends of humanity," are described with much force ; and there is an account of a certain Greek, named Spiridion, who made offers of marriage to all the young ladies of the party in succession, through the introduction, first, of an old German lady and then of an English officer, neither Greek, nor German, nor Englishman having any acquaintance with the ladies, beyond sitting at the same table d'hôte, which is most ridiculous, but which we have not room to give at length. But as we are all talking about the Turks, the following may be acceptable to the unfortunate bondholder :—" From all accounts, the present Sovereign is more than half-idiotic, and sunk in sloth and indolence. He has a mania for birds, and at one time would give almost any price for a rare specimen. In some ways, he seems faintly to resemble Caligula, though pro- bably never having heard of that Emperor, the Commander of the Faithful is, doubtless, guiltless of any ambition to rival the famous horse consul, in spite of his having testified his admiration of a favourite colt by conferring a decoration on it ! Another bird of the gallinaceous race incurred the imperial displeasure, how, I am not aware, whether by crowing too loudly, or refusing to crow at all, whereupon he ordered the offender into imprisonment for several days."
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