5 JUNE 1886, Page 24

The Highlands of Cantubria ; or, Three Days from England.

By Mars Ross and H. Stonehewer Cooper. (Sampson Low and Co.)— This is an interesting book of travel, possessing, too, the advantage of treating of accessible places and expeditions possible to the average Englishman, whose parse has limits only too easily reached, and who has something to do besides amusing himself. The authors do not forget the practical side of a book of travel, and add to the account of their own experiences a chapter addressed to " those who follow our tracks.' Very good and useful advice this chapter contains; but it is silent, we observe, on the important point as to the season of the year when the tour is best taken. From an incidental statement that they were at a certain place on Ash-Wednesday, we gather that the authors went in the late winter and early spring. On other points the in- formation with which we are supplied is sufficiently full, and it is given in a readable way, with, perhaps, a little too much of the jocose. When we have said this, and had our grumble at the size of the book— (why not a volume which it would be possible to carry about F)—our fault-finding is done. The authors, who do not make their first literary essay in this volume, have written a pleasant, entertaining, serviceable book. Trade, manners and customs, scenery, sport, have all due attention paid to them. The illustrations are from photo- graphs, some of them good, some failing to give much notion of the places which they represent.—Notes of a Tour in Spain. By Fred. W. Rose. (T. Vickers Wood.)—Here the travellers entered Spain by Barcelona, and finished their tour at San Sebastian. On the whole, they received a favourable impression, the inns in particular being better than common report had led them to expect. This is a fairly good book, giving some agreeable views of the surface of Spanish things, but not always in the best taste (vide p. 122).