A WALKING TOUR ACROSS FRANCE.*
MR. BRANCH JOHNSON and his wife set out on a tramp from Nice to Brittany by way of Biarritz and the Biscay Coast, taking with them only Army packs.. Many people make similar plans for their holidays and walk no further than across the room to consult a guide-book. Mr. Johnson's account of his travels will sharpen the most ignobly repressed Wander- lust, and that guide-book will come down again, if only to be replaced in a day or two by a diligent housemaid.
Among French Folk is an entertaining and unpretentious book. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson fell in with many odd travelling com- panions, and had many amusing experiences. Even in our civilized corner of Europe there are queer people to be met and curious adventures for those who do not walk through the fields with their gloves on. Parts of Mr. Johnson's narrative, we admit, verge on the suspect area of the " tall " story. For instance, on one occasion, a donkey he had acquired en route and christened Marcus Aurelius ate the entire plans and specifications of a new system of electric lighting which was to be installed at the town of Luz. However, the incident is so well told and so laughable that the reader can do nothing but welcome Mr. Johnson's audacity. For a time Mr. and Mrs. Johnson joined forces with a professional vagabond, and parted with him in haste when they found that he intended to rob them at leisure.
• Among Frenel Yolk. By W. Branch Johnson. London: Cecil Palmer, 1125. Sd. net.]
Like most of his kind he was a great talker, and the time they spent in his company was well repaid in conversation. For a time Mr. Johnson travelled in a showman's caravan, and, in return for his host's courtesy, he acted as decoy in a shooting booth when the fair stopped at little country villages. But all these things are better in detail and at first hand. The reader will not find Mr. Johnson a wearying companion. Ho is perhaps more concerned with French people and French manners than with the beauties of the country through which he passed, but his descriptions of town and country, enlivened by an occasional apt historical reference, are fresh and vivid.
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