Some merit must be ascribed to the author of A
Pedestrian Tour through 1347 Miles of Wales and England, inasmuch as be has carried the art of prose-spinning beyond any other previous writer. He has solved the problem of how few ideas may be expanded into two volumes. PEDESTRES, as he calls himself, sets out for Sidmouth, and walks through Wales to Manchester, returning through the principal towns that lie in his route back to the point whence he started. He visits the places and sees the same sights as most persons who have visited Wales have seen ; meets with no adventures—as how should he ? conveys no new information ; is neither antiquarian, geologist, nor any other ist but egotist : and yet, by dint of setting a few slight descriptive sketches in a fantastic framework of words so as to fill a large space, he bas managed to pass himself off for somebody. He affects the eccentric style of STERNE ; but having neither wit, humour, pathos, nor originality of thought, he is silly and tire- some, and his egotistical trifling becomes at last a perfect bore. These volumes are reprinted, from the Metropolitan Magazine : how they came into the present shape we cannot imagine.
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