With Knapsack and Notebook. By A. W. Cooper. (A. Brown
and Son. 3s. 6d. net.)—" The Walking Parson " is as amusing and as instructive as ever. This time his route has been through Scotland—as far as Aberdeen—Denmark, Holland, and Belgium. In Scotland he is surprised and grieved not to see more plaids, and not to meet any one carrying his shoes and stockings, to put them on when he reaches the town. As for plaids, we cannot speak ; to an outsider they seem a little awkward and ineffective. As to the shoes and stockings, the gender of the supposed bearer is wrong. It is the " shes" who carry them in this fashion. No self-respecting Highlandman would do such a thing, any more than he would carry anything except salmon, or grouse, or deer, or an umbrella. The Danish chapters are good, though we could have done without the tragical story of the Danish Queen. In Denmark the traveller had the satisfaction of getting as cheap a meal as has ever been recorded,—a bottle of beer (unfermented) and five biscuits for a halfpenny. But in Denmark many things look strange,—housemaids, for instance, who make it a condition that they shall have an hour every morning for an English lesson. In cheapness, however, Denmark is rivalled by Portugal, as our "Parson" diverges from his route to tell us. . Two pounds will suffice for the week's hotel bill, and we are informed that there is nothing else to spend money
on. The German chapters, on the whole, make pleasant reading. Here is a gruesome story, which Mr. Cooper vouches for as told of what happened in a town where he was chaplain. A soldier and a civilian had a duel; the civilian fired at ten paces and missed; this gave the soldier the right to fire when and where he pleased, so he put his pistol to his antagonist's ear. This must have been within the last quarter of a century.
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