Hampshire. By J. Charles Cox, LL.D. (Methuen and Co. If.)
—The reader will find much that ho wants to know in this volume (one of the" Little G uides " series). I fe will find a general description of the county. with a catalogue of its flora, and some- thing about its fauna. And. he will learn much about its eccle- siastical architecture. This, indeed, is the book's strong point. But as a " guide " for the ordinary traveller, who has a weakness
for any recreation beyond the somewhat austere pursuit of looking at churches, it is deficient. The rivefrs of the county are dismissed with the remark that they "are ef no particular moment, save from the angler's point of view "; as for golf, we do but find the golfer mentioned among the modern intruders who are robbing the country of its charm of seclusion. The name of Hambledon does compel the mention of cricket ; but that is a solitary concession to human weakness. Is it not a little hard to say—a propos of Eversley Church—that "no amount of money could make such a church as this attractive or devotional" ? "Attractive" may pass, but "devotional "? What Dr. Cox thinks about Presbyterians and non-Episcopalians generally we do not know, though we can guess. But if no places of worship but the architecturally correct are "devotional," a large part of Christendom is but ill off.—Sicily, by F. Hamilton Jackson (3s.), is also one of the "Little Guides," and, as far as a stay-at-home critic can judge, a good book. The historical sketch is certainly much to the purpose.
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