7 JULY 1877, Page 24

The Literary Remains of the late Charles F. 7'yrwhitt Drake.

With a Memoir by Walter Besant. (Bentley and Son.)—Mr. Drake's name is- well known in connection with the exploration of Palestine. To that work he gave up the best years of his life. It was in the prosecution of it that he met his death, having been seized in the spring of 1874 with marsh fever in the swamps of the Lower Jordan. Ill-health—for though he was a man of fine presence and great muscular strength, he was affected with incurable chest-disease—had shut him out from university distinctions. In the work to which he devoted himself he showed singular aptitude and skill. As a traveller, he had rare excel- lencies. Captain Burton, than whom it would not be easier to find a better judge, had the highest opinion of him. The two wore associated in the travels which were described in the work entitled " Unexplored Syria," an he had been before in the researches in the desert "El Tih," with Professor Palmer. Ho was but twenty-eight when he died. The last words of the memoir, words of one who knew him well, best de- scribe him :—" Ho left an impression on me which will never be effaced,. —a grand, noble, English gentleman." Tho Remains consist of a paper on " Modern Jerusalem," which is perhaps the best thing in the volume; "Notes for a History of Jerusalem," with some practical "Notes for Travellers in Palestine" (some of the matter of these appeared at the time of writing in the " Journal of the Palestine Exploration Fund "). "A Report on the Natural History of the Till," addressed to the Vice- Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, was originally published in Nature. Besides these, there are "Morocco and the Moors" and "Extracts from a Journal in Egypt." An appendix gives a biographical sketch which appeared in "Der Globus."