A Winter in Tangier, and Home through Spain. By Mrs.
Howard- Yyse, (Hatchards.)—These extracts from a diary kept by Mrs. Hovvard-Vyse during her stay in Tangier are so far successful, that they bring vividly before the reader those superficial and more obvious differences of life, costume, and customs which first strike the exiled European. With the visual quickness of the modern English- woman who has lately developed the colour-sense, Mrs. Vyse catches and records enthusiastically the strong local colour of this little-known eountry. As far as regards bright carpets, gold-erobroidered slippers, gorgeous rugs, and quaint pottery, Mrs. Vyso is qualified for a professorship of drawing-room °esthetics. In comparison with such a traveller as Miss Bird, for instance, she does not shine, for, with the exception of one or two examples of Tangerine justice and some welcome information on Arab and Moorish marriage customs, we are pretty much left in that state of ignorance of Morocco and its institutions which is the common heritage of Englishmen. While on this subject, we gratefully recall, and can safely recommend, a work by Dr. Mayo, the brilliant author of "Never Again," entitled " Kaloolah," in which he constructs an exciting romance out of the history and customs of the Berbers of Morocco, and at the same time conveys much interesting information on this curious kingdom. Perhaps Mrs. Howard-Vyse had not the requisite opportunities for ascertaining the popular customs and beliefs, the mode of govern- ment, and the prospects of the country ; this, however, is what we look for in a book of travels, and it would have been better to have recounted her experiences within the compass of a magazine article. That part of the book which deals with Spain is, like the rest, written in a lively and jerky style, though, with the memory of the works of the late Mr. Hugh Rose and Major Campion's admirable "On Foot through Spain" strong in our minds, we have indulged in comparisons more than commonly odious.
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