Leaves from the Log of a Gentleman - Gipsy. By Gordon Stables,
M.D., C.M., R.N. (Jerrold and Sons.)—Mr. Stables, like 'Mr. Hissey, whose pleasant volume, " Across England in a Dog-Cart," we lately noticed, is a dear lover of home-travel, and belieies, not without good reason, that the charms of English scenery are inex-
haustible. HisseY travelled in a four.wheeleddog-cart ;"' Dr.
Stables, in a caravan-" built of sblid- mahogany, with-eilt facings outside, and internally' lined With maple." life -carried with him a valet who played on the violin, and whose portrait, as well'as that of his:master, adorns. these pages. The traveller writes with a strong feeling of- enjoyment, in--much good temper, and with a touch of -what perhaps may be called bumptiousness, As, for instance; when he says : "No resolve is to. act-with me. That is the sort of person lam." ,The book ianot one that ealls fer criticism. -A. cheerful but. rather eoramonplace description of the scenery, of . the roads the writer. traversed, of the interest excited in towns and villages by his caravan, and some good-natured, gossip. form the staple of the volume. To drive through a country and say it is charming, and to " lay " for days in .a. townand say it is. chtirming- also, does not, it is obvious, convey a distinct impression of either. Occasionally, indeed, the author does attempt to describe what he sees, and makes his readers see it, as, for example, in his account of the 'New Forest ; but, on the whole, the chief impres- sion which the volume leaves on us as we close its pages, is- that to travel- through' England in a caravan with good- servants, good horses, and every convenience of life that can be carried in a vehicle 20 ft. in length, is a highly agreeable way of gaining health and spending •money. Possibly we may -think also that there is a still- better-way of seeing our-native land, and that the inevitable publicity of caravan - travelling -has its drawbacks_ Wherever he travelled, Dr. Stables informs us, he -was "boarded by. reporters."
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