Of Walks and Walking Tours, By Arnold Haultain. (T. Werner
Laurie. 5s. net.)—In his chapter "The Walking Tour" Mr. Haultain advises would-be walkers, if they walk in a populous region, to
"carry a pair of light shoes. These will come in handy if you run across a friend who asks you to dinner. Carry also a collar or two; not only hosts and hostesses, but landlords and landladies look askance at too trampish an appearance. I once felt rather uncomfortable sitting at the head of a table d'hfite at the excellent Hotel Kaltenbach on the American side at Niagara, (the landlord know me well), for I was in rough flannels and tweeds, and my follow guests wore dressed like (and some of them probably were) millionaires and millionairessos."
We cannot help wondering what Thoreau, Richard Jefferiea, and other notable walkers quoted by Mr. Haultain would have had to say to this consideration for the social conventions l Nor is it possible to conceive Borrow, for instance, burdening him self with extra impedimenta in case he might be called upon to sit down to dinner with a millionairess. After this it is difficult to be quite convinced by the author's enthusiasin for the simple joys of what he somewhat laboriously terms "rural peregrinations." Mr. Haultain has been a " walker "
in India, and Canada, among other places, and the chapters dealing with his experiences in the Dominion are perhaps the most interesting. In a sub-title we are told that the book is an attempt to find a philosophy and a creed, and it contains many philosophical and somewhat mystical speculations. It is to be regretted that throughout his work Mr. Haultain
has not been able to express himself more simply. Long words have a fatal attraction for him. For instance, he describes his thoughts while gazing at the Milky Way as "ontological speculations " ; and in another place ho tells us that "no mechanical contrivance for locomotion will extirpate the tribe of tramps."
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