THE MOSELLE.*
The author of this book is of opinion that the Rhine has long enough engrossed the admiration of the tourists in that part of the Continent, and that it ought to be the turn of the Moselle. This river, which "rises among the wooded mountains of the Department des Vosges, never during its whole course is otherwise than beautiful," (which more than can be said for the Rhine North of Cologne) ; and there still remain on its shores "more old castles and ruins, and more curious old houses, than can elsewhere be found in a like space of Europe." So says Mr. Rooke : if all the readers who are startled at the assertion will only go and see, the Moselle will doubtless, by that process alone, be a tolerably "used-up" stream. The author makes up a very pretty vo- lume about it, not only by his writing,—a not very solid texture of sen- timent, romantic tale or legend, and description,—but by the sketches which he has himself supplied to the engraver. These certainly give tempting glimpses of the scenery,—the limpid river, sweetly and richly wooded hill and dale, gentle declivity and mountain grandeur, the moonlit ripple and the sun-streaks through the trees, the picturesque cottage and the relics of lordly castles. In many of the designs there are manifest enjoyment and sweetness, combined with that individuality of material which it is scarcely possible to get in a fancy-sketch, and for which faithful portraiture is the only panacea. Much beautiful compo- sition is also to be noticed,--dependent, indeed, chiefly on the pic- turesqueness of the scenes themselves, but partly also on the intelligent selection of the designer ; and, in the choicer examples, the engraving, as well as the sketching, is extremely nice. Considerable inequality may be detected in Mr. Rooke's designs ; but we prefer to dwell only upon those in which he shines the most.
° The Life of the Moselle, from its Source in the Vosges Mountains to its Junc- tion with the Rhine at Coblenec. By Octavins Rooke, Author of "The Channel Islands, Pictorial, Legendary, and Descriptive." Illustrated with seventy En- gravings from Original Designs by the Author ; Engraved by T. Bolton. Published by Booth'.
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