On Tuscan Hills and Venetian Waters. By Linda Villari. (T.
Fisher Unwin.)—The book begins with a charming description of a Tuscan villa, most charming of summer retreats, though probably less agreeable when the winter cold nips sharply, as it can even in sunny Italy. Next comes a description of a little town in the mountains, Barge., some twenty miles north of Lucca ; and then one of the Bosco Lung°, a forest in the Apennines, some forty miles from Florence. Besides these pictures of human habitations and of scenery, there are sketches of manners, the ways of Italian domestics and artisans. One of the chapters treats of "The Homes of the Plaster-Image Men." These itinerants are, it seems, mostly Lucchesi, and Ghivizzano is one of the villages which chiefly sends them forth. The smaller half of the book is devoted to Venice and its neighbourhood. We may mention among the chapters that which describes" St. Francis in the Desert," and another, fall of colour, on "Festivals and Fisher-folk." This is a book of many attractions and much interest.
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