THE IDLER OUT OF DOORS.
The Idler Out of Doors. By Walter Raymond. With Illustra- tions by R. W. Arthur Rouse, R.B.A. (Grant Richards. 68.).-- This is a pleasant book, but we dispute its pretension to be a vindication of idleness. To roam the country, staying long enough in one place and another to drink in all the poetry of local associations, besides noting characteristic buildings, crops, and inhabitants, is not to "idle." It is to choose one among many excellent ways of occupying leisure. To write a series cf graceful studies of the places visited, and to infuse into many of the pieces an element of romantic plot that almost makes a story, is to turn this occupation of leisure hours to good account for others as well as self. Mr. Raymond has special gifts of senti- ment and style which ensure the success of his lounging essays. He takes us out fishing and bat-fowling; tells us about the notes of wild birds and the ways of silly sheep ; muses with the spirit of the great Alfred at Athelney ; picks up still living tradi- tion of the Monmouth Rising among the peasants of Sedgmoor ; and takes his farewell of the reader among the bowers and ruins of Arthurian Camelot. Nine exquisite little drawings admirably reproduced complete the charm of the volume.
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