Byways of the Scottish Border. By George Eyre-Todd. (James Lewis,
Selkirk.)--This is a narrative, touched with poetical emotion, of a walk that the author took in the autumn of 1586 with an artist friend, eastward from Moffat, through some of the best-known Border districts. Mr. Eyre-Todd, as a rule, writes a pleasant, easy-flowing, simple style, although he occasionally gushes, and once or twice oven attempts such a fin de sikle affectation as "the pregnance of forgotten haps." But it must be allowed that he has, on the whole, succeeded in attaining what may be believed to have been his chief object,—the production of a prose-poetical guide-book. This is all the more creditable to him because he traverses ground that is almost too familiar. Who does not know not only " Lone St. Mary's," and " The Dow.io Dens of Yarrow," and " Flodden's Fatal Field," but practically every- thing that has been written about them P But Mr. Eyre-Todd has looked at the enchanted land with his own eyes. What he has seen he has described ; and he has supported his own enthu- siasm with the raptures of others who have gone before him. That enthusiasm is genuine, and it is catching. In short, his book is very readable, very enjoyable, and, it should be added, remarkably well illustrated.
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