MURRAY'S GUIDE TO INDIAI' IT is superfluous to say that
the ninth edition of this standard guide-book has been carefully brought up to date, and supplies all that the most conscientious traveller can possibly require. A good instance of the care taken in procuring the latest infor-
• Shorter Poems of Frederick Tranyson. Edited, with an Introduction, by Charles Tennyson. London: Macmillan and Co. [5e. net.] t A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon. Ninth Edition. Edited by C. E. Buckland. OLE. London : John Murray. [20a] 'nation is that at page 388 a full account is given of the Lower Ganges bridge, now under construction at Saraghat, which will be the greatest work of its kind in India, and will cost two and half millions of pounds. The excellent maps, too, show the most recent political and administrative changes. But there are guide-books—and this is one of them—which appeal to those who have not yet travelled, or who travel no more. A schoolboy, for instance, might well dip into these crowded pages and feel the first enthusiasm which may make of him an Indian administrator. Even those who know their India fairly well may learn much from a guide so well informed. Students of vernacular literature may have read, for example, that some local musician was "a veritable Tansen." The dictionary will probably give no clue to the comparison, but look up "Gwalior " in Murray, and you will tind that "the tamarind tree near the grave [of Tansen] is much visited by musicians, as the chewing of the leaves is alleged to impart a wonderful sweetness to the voice." Under the heading of " Gwalior," too, is a vivid description of the death in battle of the famous Rani of Jhansi, who, when "General Smith ordered the Hussars to charge, . . . boldly fronted the British horse- men." Such romantic incidents—and they abound in a book which Las a real fascination for the desultory reader—have a peculiar piquancy when we come across them in pages not professedly historical or romantic. Students of the Sepoy Mutiny might do worse than begin with a careful reading of this admirable guide. There was so much scattered fighting during the suppression of the Mutiny that the best and clearest description must needs be topographical in its arrangement, and that is just what is here supplied.
The plans of towns and famous buildings continue to be an admirable feature of the Guide. There are, of course, omissions, but where so much had to be crowded into the covers of a single portable volume it must be admitted that the inevitable selection has been made with excellent judgment. For instance, in the otherwise full account of the Town Hall at Calcutta it might have been said that its architect was General Garstin, of the Bengal Engineers, whose name is commemorated in an adjoining street. But the contemporaries of Warren Hastings have mostly fallen into kindly oblivion, and this and other such omissions are easily excused by those who best know the thronged tale of Anglo-Indian history and achievement. Mr. Buckland is to be congratulated on the care and success with which he has brought this standard Guide up to date.
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