RAMBLES ABROAD AND AT HOME.
The Riviera, by S. Baring-Gould (Methuen and Co., 6s.), furnishes Mr. Baring-Gould's facile pen with a subject full of variety. Whatever the theme, it seems to be equally at home. He discourses on the contour of the country and its geology, on the troubadours and the mediaeval Courts of Love, on the cam- paign of Marius against the Cimbri and Teutons, on the manu- facture of the cork of commerce, and on other subjects almost without number. He follows the coast from Marseilles to Savona —a map would have been a welcome addition—and wherever he takes us finds abundance of matter, in the past or the present, wherewith to entertain us. There is a grim chapter about Monte Carlo, in which the arrangements for carrying out the bodies of suicides to the deep sea are described. Mr. Baring-Gould has speculations about the methods of play, for which we must refer our readers to his pages. As to rouge et noir, one famous utterance of M. Blanc should never be forgotten : "Noir gag,no quelquefois ; rouge souvent ; blane toujours."— Rambles in Normandy. By Francis Miltoun. (Duckworth and Co. 6s. net.)—Mr. Miltoun, after an introductory chapter on the region into which he is about to bring his readers, discourses about " Roads " and "Forests," both matters as to which Frenchmen may feel legitimately proud of their country. English management has been somewhat haphazard, and much has been lost which can never be regained. Then he has "A Travel Chapter," in which he shows a remarkably intimate know- ledge of his subject,—in the collection, for instance, of native Norman phrases. Part II. deals with the economical and social aspects of the country and its inhabitants, and also with its architecture, treated generally and with respect to particular examples. Finally, in Part III. we have the actual "Rambles!' In the appendices a variety of useful information is supplied, together with some small maps. The book is adorned with some fourscore attractive illustrations by Miss Blanche McManus.— flighways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds. By Herbert A. Evans. (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Evans begins with a chapter on Oxford, which is tantalisingly short,—just about a twelfth of the whole. However, we can console' ourselves by reflecting that there is no lack of good books about Oxford, whereas some of the places to which our guide takes us, after Oxford has been left behind, are comparatively unknown. Yarn- ton (about four miles to the north-west) is the first place visited. Mr. Evans finds the date of 1611 on the church tower, and conjectures, on the strength of a close architectural resemblance to Wadham College, that "the same architect was employed both by the founder of Wadham and the munificent benefactor of Yarnton." This can hardly be, for William Arnold, the craftsman who designed Wadham, was employed there, working for a weekly wage, from April, 1610, down to July, 1612. Wadham had no architect, in the ordinary sense of the word. From Yarnton we go on to Woodstock, thence to Banbury, and thence, with many intermediate stages, to Copredy, Edgehill, Compton-Wynyates, Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Campden, Broadway, Sherborne, Bibury, Painswick, Cirencester, and Great Tew, to mention a few of the best known out of many names. Mr. Evans is fully equal to his task of guide and historian, and his descriptions are materially helped by Mr. Frederick L. Griggs's excellent illustra- tions.—Memorials of Old Hertfordshire. Edited by Percy Cross Standing. (Bemrose and Sons. 15s. net.)—Mr. Standing has called to his aid some twelve contributors, each of whom writes about the subject with which he has a special acquaintance. His own share—in which papers on St. Alban the Martyr, Hatfield,
the battles of St. Albans and Barnet, &c., are found—occupies something more than a third of the whole. Among the other writers we notice the names of Canon Benham, Mr. H. P. Pollard, and the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield. The photographic illustrations are good.
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