ROMANTIC CALIFORNIA.
Romantic California. By Ernest Peixotto. (T. Fisher Unwire• 10s. net.)—Mr. Peixotto has found portions of both Italy and Spain in the Golden State ; the vineyards are merely a bit of translated Piedmont, and Southern California, the land of the deserted missions, is as unmistakably Spanish as any of the other American settlements. Much of the artistic value of the State is due to the climate, which is in parts nearly ideal, and generally of the dryness and clearness we associate with the two European Peninsulas. We can understand, then, the claim which the author puts forward that there does exist in one corner of America a land with the flavour of antiquity and the atmosphere of historical associations. He is an artist, and his descriptions of pastoral life and the journey down the old road to the South, the "King's Highway," is one long literary landscape. He gives ns the charm that lingers round the old missions and other relics of the Spanish Conquest, but we become a little wearied of the continual insistence on every fresh turn of the landscape. Perhaps the most interesting chapters are those describing the environs of San Francisco, which sound delightful to those who winter in England, his sketching sojourn on a wild bit of coast, and his stay at some sylvan home in the Sierras. The drawings of the mission are effective. We must not forget the aim of the author, which is to point out the value of California as a resting-place with an undeniably classic tone. Those who feel so acutely the rapid vulgarisation of much that is picturesque here might very wall take a hint from Mr. Peixotto.
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