16 OCTOBER 1926, Page 39

A WANDERER IN ROME. By E. V. Lucas. (Methuen lOs.

6d. net.)—Mr. Lucas Specializes in gossipy guide-books. and fills this book with local or historical information given with the informality of talk. But his talent in supplying Punch with local sketches means no special aptitude for revealing Rome's lambent riches, for interpreting her ex- haustion into inspirations, or showing why to so many, as already to Ovid, she has been Quanta nee est, nec erit, nec visa Prioribus annis. The illustrations, like the letterpress, have the distinction of Mr. Aubrey Waterfield's water-colours of Rome ; but though Mr. Lucas's sentences are dull, his taste is broad ; and to appreciate the " fine urgency " of Bemini shows an insight that is unusually reassuring.