Santo, Lucia, and Co., in Austria. By Ella Hunter. (Blackwood.)
—This is an exhilarating and stimulating little book, and this is about all the criticism that it would be fair to offer of it. Miss Ella Hunter, being an invalid, is debarred from taking walking exercise, and, with a view to recover health and obtain pleasure, drove in the coarse of the summer of 1877 in a basket phaeton through some of the finest scenery of Austria. In 95 days, she travelled 1,241 miles, her total expenses being £52 12s. 6d. Her tour was not free from dangers; she had her frill share of experiences of the mountain pass and thunder-storm character. But being evidently of a happy disposition, and, having a knack of making the best of everything, difficulties and even privations did not daunt her. She was, moreover, well served by her pony Lucia,' and by her boy driver and factotum, "Santo," and altogether, as the result of her tour, she says, " I re- turned home a great deal stronger than when I left ; and my doctor, who came to see me as soon as he heard of my arrival, was more than astonished at the progress I had made towards recovery, and quite agreed with me that a life in the open air was better for me than any medicine." We cannot say that Miss Hunter has much that is new to tell of Ischl, or Bad Hall, or Millstadt, or any of the other places she visited, for she prattles on in this school-girl fashion,—" This lake [Wolfgang See] is about eight miles long, and the water is a lovely bluish-green. It, like the Traunsee, has a carious rocky preci- pice overhanging it, called the Falkenstein, where there is a wonderful 'echo, which sometimes is repeated distinctly seven times in fine weather." But Miss Hunter's narrative is as modest and unaffected as it is full of amiability and high spirits ; and, as we have already hinted, it should be read with a view to get enjoyment, rather than knowledge.
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