BOOK REVIEWS 



Edited by Marion Randall Parsons 



Mountain Sir Martin Conway, past-president of the English Alpine Club, 

 Memories* has written in his Mountain Memories the romance of the moun- 

 tains which always thrills the imagination of the mountain- 

 lover. "Thirty years of mountaineering in all parts of the world may well be 

 called a pilgrimage," and the author's subtitle, "A Pilgrimage of Romance," 

 perfectly express the contents of his book, 



"Mountaineering" to Sir Martin Conway was an expression of his life, and 

 in writing of the experience which was his life he inevitably develops a philos- 

 ophy, or, at least, a point of view, which perhaps only mountain-lovers, in 

 whatever degree, can understand with sympathy. 



This book is alive with the essential spirit of romance — the allure of the un- 

 known and untried, the subtle charm lent by the imagination, the experiencing 

 of the joy of discovery, which is the experiencing of a beauty first felt in the 

 mind and heart of the discoverer. It is an evanescent spirit, perhaps. Seen too 

 often, Sir Martin's mountains no longer kindle the romantic eagerness; knowl- 

 edge takes its place — detailed, exact, valuable perhaps, but lacking the lovely 

 colors of the romance-tinted first acquaintance. 



Sir Martin in his quest first sought the Alps, then Kashmir and the Hima- 

 layas, later Spitzbergen, then the Andes and Fuegia, Everywhere he found 

 the charm and beauty which he craved — and found it because he took it with 

 him in his own heart. 



The veteran author's memories are recounted with beauty and vividness, but 

 they are memories which hold alive and bright only the essentials of experi- 

 ence — the happiness, the fancy, the emotion of it. Details of dates, distances, 

 elevations — statistics of mountaineering — are few and incidental. Especially 

 fine are a three-page memoir of A. F. Mummery, "a mountain genius," and the 

 five chapters given to Kashmir and the Himalayas. 



The book is splendidly done typographically, and the sixteen full-page illus- 

 trations are evidently chosen for their significance. A. H. A. 



Birds in Town W. H. Hudson's latest book, entitled Birds in Town and 

 and VrLLAGEf Village, is written in his usual delightful style. It gives 

 something of the life habits of all the commoner birds of the 

 British Isles — those that one may meet with in his daily walks — while he also 

 includes intimate glimpses of those rarer birds which must be sought in out- 



* Mountain Memories: A Pilgrimage of Romance. By Sir Martin Conway. Funk & 

 Wagnalls Company, New York. 1920. Pages, 282; with 16 full-page plates. Price, $5.16; 

 charges paid. 



1i Birds in Town and Village. By W. H. Hudson. With pictures in color by E. J. 

 Detmold. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. Pages, 322. 



