3 JANUARY 1880, Page 32

Our Visit to Hinclostan, Kashmir, and Ladakh. By Mrs. Murray

Aynsley. (Allen, 1879.)—It is scarcely possible to conceive three years being spent with less apparent advantage than those which Mrs. Murray Aynsley devoted to visiting India. She has written a book of three hundred and twenty-six pages, to tell her friends that she spent thirty-six months of her life in travelling in some of the most interesting parts of the world ; but she has not filled more than a tithe of her book with an account of her own doings or impressions. The remainder is made up of the history, chiefly in almost prehistoric times, of the various provinces and cities that she visited. When people who write books of travel speak of what they have seen, their work may possibly be interesting ; but when they make their own uneventful voyages, the excuse for dull disquisition on ancient history of very doubtful authenticity, the book becomes absolutely unreadable. We do not think there is a single sentence in Mrs. Murray Aynsley's travels which is calculated to make any human being the wiser, the better, the happier, or the merrier. We read it conscientiously through, and found ourselves much sadder, though no wiser than before.