OUR VILLA IN ITALY.
Our Villa in Italy. By Joseph Lucas. (T. Fisher Unwin. Ss. net.)—This little book, with its alluring title and interest- ing pictures, will attract the attention of those who can say with Browning, "Queen Mary's saying serves for me," and if Mr. Lucas had told us more about life as it is actually lived " up at a villa" and given us less of his reflections on things in general, his readers' anticipations would have been more agreeably fulfilled. However, we can follow him with interest in his house-hunting expeditions and in his quests for old furniture and majolica. "Our idea," he says, "was to furnish the old Tuscan villa with old Tuscan furniture," and in spite of difficulties he has succeeded in collecting many beautiful pieces, such as a sixteenth-century cassone, an imposing- looking article called a cassapanca (a combination of chest and settee), besides interesting cabinets, chairs, and tables. He also tells us something of his garden and small farm, which have evidently been a source of great pleasure to him.
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