Major Knollys, RA., paid a short visit to Japan to
recruit his health, which had been impaired at Hong Kong, and expands his note-book into a series of light and readable chapters, under the title
of Sketches of Life in Japan (Chapman and Hall). There is nothing particularly new in them, but they are pleasantly written. The facts which impressed him most, as he repeatedly tells us, were the extreme cleanliness of the natives, their childish merriment and un- varying good-humour, and their peculiar friendliness to the English, for whom a few years ago they entertained the most deadly hatred. Among other signs of progress, they have roadside telegraphs and pillar-poats in fall working order. There are several pretty illustra- tions to the book, one in particular giving an entirely new view of typical beauty in the Japanese ladies.
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