3 SEPTEMBER 1921, Page 25

Wayfarers in Arcady. By Charles Vince. (Philip Allan. 7s. 6d.

net.)—Charles Lamb somewhere compares the fantastic contents of one of his letters to monsters crammed into those empty spaces of old maps which were labelled Terra Incognita : we might say in antithesis that Mr. Vince has drawn the fauna of a better known world with agreeable deftness in the framework of a terra cognita—the Home Counties. He writes of the Sussex Downs, of country breakfasts, and of mad shepherds with a pleasing inconsequence.—Mr. Gales in his Old World Essays (Daniel O'Connor, 8s. 6d. net) has a heavier touch, but the very diversity of his subjects is entertaining. This is neither a bed-book nor a river-book. It might be welcome when more nebulous writing would pall.