29 JUNE 1901, Page 48

The Journal of Mrs. Penton during the Years 1826 to

1830. (Edward Arnold. Ss. 6d.)—Mrs. Fenton's journal is an interesting record of India in the "twenties." Such tedious travelling, such wretched resting-places, would hardly be endured in the present day, and it is a comfort that such roadside sights as a party of natives burning their old father or a festival at which an infant was sacrificed are no longer to be shuddered at. The book con- tains vivid descriptions of scenery and of life, and piteous accounts of the fever which attacked almost every one, and to which Captain Campbell, Mrs. Fenton's first husband, fell a victim. She married again, but she was a mourning bride, and her lamentations over past happiness can hardly have been agreeable to her kind and excellent second husband. In 1830 they emigrated to Tasmania, and here the journal ends abruptly. We wish that there were letters or notes to carry on the story, for the lady appreciated all she saw, and had the gift of enabling her readers also to see whatever she described. The book impresses one strongly with its reality.