i33 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Country Rambles. By W. Percival Westell. With an Introduction by F. G. 
Aflalo. Illustrated with Photographs taken direct from Nature by J. T. 
Newman, and from Drawings by Arthur Martin. Henry J. Drane. Price 
ios. 6d. 
We admire Mr. Westell’s courage. In spite of some strongly worded protests 
of late against Nature-diaries or calendars, or other collections of “ unreasoned ” 
observations, he gives us here, in a handsome volume adorned with about 130 
illustrations, mostly photographed direct from Nature, not only a diary but that of 
one year only. Personally, though we prefer the compared and averaged results 
of many years’ observation in a more condensed form, we cannot for a moment 
agree that these unsystematized records of first-hand outdoor observation are not 
of great value. Mr. Westell has furnished his book with a copious index, so that, 
though printed in crude diary form, it is easy to refer in it to notes on any topic on 
which one may be seeking information. The title is hardly sufficiently compre- 
hensive, since visits to the “ Zoo,” or the annual meeting of the Selborne Society, 
or notes on old books, are hardly “Country Rambles.” We feel sure that many 
naturalists will take pleasure in comparing, in other years and in other counties 
than Hertfordshire, their own observations with Mr. Westell’s for 1900. Mr. 
Arthur Martin’s drawings are reminiscent of Bewick, but are more spotty and 
scratchy than the works of the great master. Though very faithful to Nature, he 
has not yet fully mastered his medium. We have nothing but praise for Mr. 
Newman’s beautiful photographs, though too often, alas, there is no direct 
reference to them in the text. 
Field-Path Rambles in East Surrey. By Walker Miles. R. E. Taylor & Son. 
Price 6s. net. 
This very handy buckram-bound volume includes Series 9-12 of Mr. Miles’s 
well-known guides, with an Introduction by Mr. L. W. Chubb, of the Commons 
and Footpaths Preservation Society, railway sketch-maps, numerous additional 
illustrations, some of which we hope to reproduce at some future date, and which 
include one of the wonderful fresco Inferno in Chaldon Church, a full index of 
places, and some blank pages for the rambler’s own notes. Though over six 
hundred miles of rambles are here minutely described, each ramble starts from and 
ends at a railway station, and loop-lines and alternative routes are so cleverly 
arranged that, though the same path is hardly ever traversed more than once, the 
capacities of both good and bad walkers are alike considered. We hope soon to 
see other sets of series gathered in this manner into volume form. 
Alpine Flora for Tourists and Amateur Botanists. By Dr. Julius Hoffmann. 
Translated by E. S. Barton (Mrs. A. Gepp). Longmans. Price 7s. 6d. net. 
This inexpensive work seems to us to be admirably adapted to its purpose. 
It contains forty coloured plates from water-colour drawings by Hermann Friese, 
comprising 250 figures of the more conspicuous flowers and ferns of the Alps. 
Though over-coloured these are quite recognisable ; they do not overlap ; and they 
are in systematic order. They are accompanied by brief descriptions with the 
scientific and generally the German local names, habitat in general terms and date 
of flowering. There is a sufficient glossary and a full index. We do not quite see 
the necessity for setting out the authorities for the names at length in a work of this 
character, and we should have been glad to see a few of the French and Italian 
local names as well as the German. Though it is neither small nor light enough 
for every knapsack, no party of tourists to Switzerland should go without a copy of 
this book. 
A Beautiful World: The Journal of the Society for Checking the Abuses of 
Public Advertising. No. 9. May, 1903. 1900-1903. Messrs. John Bale, 
Sons and Danielsson. 
More than three years have elapsed since the Society with whose aims all Sel- 
bornians must heartily sympathise, issued a number of their Journal, nor do they 
seem to have had any public meeting since February, 1901. Nevertheless, the 
