30 MAY 1908, Page 23

An Autumn Tramp from Edinburgh to London. By James Mathew.

(J. P. Mathew and Co., Dundee. 3s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Mathew started from Edinburgh on October 5th and reached London on the same day in November. The route which he took led him through Newcastle, Durham, York, Selby, Doncaster, and Retford. Here he took an easterly turn to Lincoln, and from thence went vitt Sleaford, Spalding, Cambridge, and Epping. He

might, on another occasion, try a more Midland route from Doncaster and compare the two. He seems to have had a pleasant time, all the pleasanter because he did not fanatically bind himself against using railways. His observations are reasonable enough and in good taste. He appears to have been fairly lucky in his weather, and he was certainly fortunate in that he was well on his way from Spalding to Peterborough before he encountered a drunken man. We see that a native was at hand to correct him when he spoke of Whittlesea as a "village," it being really a market town. No one seems to have been at hand to warn him against the same error in the case of Bawtry. Bawtry, it is true, is one of the smallest of its kind, numbering but nine hundred • inhabitants, whereas .Whittlesea reaches the respectable total of three thousand six hundred.