27 MARCH 1915, Page 25

Few visitors to Italy penetrate very far south of Naples.

As Mr. Norman Douglas remarks in his book upon Old Calabria (Martin Sacker, 15s. net), "the adventurous type of Anglo-Saxon probably thinks the country too tame; scholars, too trite ; ordinary tourists, too dirty." Whether or not it is because of his subject's unfamiliarity, Mr. Douglas has con- trived to write a travel book that is tuhaelneyed both in form and matter. He discusses saints and dragons, Milton and malaria, all with a kind of light-hearted pedantry and an always courteous cynicism. The addition of an admirable prose style makes a book which is agreeable if puzzling to read.