Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/515

 1899.] LITERATURE. 91

Miscellaneous. A garden, said Bacon, is " the purest of Humane Pleasures/' This feeling is reflected in many books recently published, which by their freshness of observation, their kindliness and their true culture form one of the pleasantest bypaths in current literature. Such a book is "Wood and Garden (Longmans) by Gertrude Jekyll. It is illustrated by happily chosen photographs, and besides containing much helpful advice for the amateur gardener, treats the whole subject of flowers and their culture with an agreeable literary touch. Two other ladies, who had already published successful books of the same kind, gave us last year further instalments. One is The Solitary Summer (Mac- millan), by the author of " Elizabeth and Her German Garden/ 1 who shows as much in her second book as in her first a sense of humour, and an enthusiasm for, and power of observing, nature. The other is from Mrs. C. W. Earle, who wrote More Potpourri from a Surrey Garden (Smith, Elder), giving, as before, in an agreeable manner many sound maxims, not only as to gardens, but generally as to the ordering of life in a country house.

Travel.

The most prominent names in the record of travel and adventure are those of ladies. Mrs. Bishop had another journey to record, as full as any she had undertaken of danger and excitement, and told with her usual literary skill, in The Yangtsse Valley and Beyond (Murray). Miss Kingsley, who has taught us so much about West Africa, published an instructive book, written in a fresh and vigorous style, called West Afrioan Studies (Macmillan), laying great stress on the importance of encouraging the development of trade in West Africa, and of governing our dependencies there with greater consideration for the ideas, cus- toms and religion of the natives.

In the literature of mountaineering, a high place must be assigned to The Highest Andes (Methuen) by E. A. Fitzgerald. Mr. Fitzgerald and Sir Martin Conway are the only mountaineers who have attempted the ascent of Aconcagua, and Mr. Fitzgerald failed, through mountain sickness, actually to reach the summit, though his guide succeeded in doing so. But his expedition in the Andes was a we 11 -organised one, and his book*, in which it is recounted in a manner both careful and picturesque, adds much to our geographical knowledge.

A writer who has achieved great popularity for the graphic and masterly description of his experiences in sailing ships, whalers and the mercantile marine is Mr. F. T. Bullen, who published last year The Cruise of the Cachalot (Smith, Elder), Idylls of the Sea (Grant Richards) and The Log of a Sea 'Waif (Smith, Elder).

Sport.

The output of books on sport is not quite up to the average. Mr. Baillie-Grohman's Sport and Idle in 'Western Amerioa (H. Cox) deserves a place by itself in one department of sport— the pursuit of big game in foreign lands. Mr. Baillie-Grohman is do mere tourist- sportsman ; he settled in the country and explored it as trader,