In the Volcanic Eifel: a Holiday Ramble. By Katharine S.
and Gilbert S. Macquoid. With Illustrations by Thomas R. Macquoid, R.I. (Hutchinson and Co.)—If any of our readers care to solace themselves in this spring weather by planning out a holiday ramble for the summer, at a distance easily and rapidly covered from London, and yet amid scenes absolutely unhackneyed, and
full of the most varied interest—geological, picturesque, and romantic—where the living is cheap and comfortable, the air pure and bracing, and the necessary fatigues are adjusted to a moderate range of physical strength, by all means let them make the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Macquoid's attractive
volume on the Volcanic Eifel. Nobody can oblige them to say whether they knew, before taking this advice from us, where the Eifel is, or what are its chief natural features. That is their own affair entirely. But there are doubtless many well-travelled English men and women who are free to confess that while they may have been aware that the Eifel was a hilly region, inclosed, broadly speaking, in the north-westward angle made by the Moselle with the Rhine at their meeting at Coblenz, and that it was noted for the abundance of its evidences of volcanic activity, they quite failed to realise the singular charm which it possesses. That charm lies in the bountiful manner in which Nature, aided to no small extent by medival man, beautified the scenes of her former ravages, without by any means concealing the signs of her destructive forces. " Deep, beautiful woods are everywhere, like lakes of waving greenery, and in them forest-trees are almost as frequent as the tall, sombre pines. Wild flowers and ferns, some of a rare kind, are plentiful, especially near Gerolstein and Manderscheid; their brilliant luxuriance is in strong contrast with the weird volcanoes and masses of deposit protruding in fantastic form from the broken side of a crater, and with the ruined castles which often crown the once fiery hills." Each of those ruins has its legend, many of them simply and graphically told by Mr. and Mrs. Macquoid, who also give abundant and very useful information as to the excursions to be made round the picturesque old towns scattered about the district, and the inns at which it is good to stay. They have a happy knack of communicating to their readers the sense of the pleasures which they have themselves enjoyed, and we shall be surprised if the perusal of this latest product of their holiday rambles, which Mr. Thomas Macquoid illustrates very attrac- tively, does not tempt many of their countrymen to pay an early visit to the Volcanic Eifel. How long, in that case, it will be possible to report that throughout that region "the pension tariff at the hotels seldom exceeds three marks and a half per day for bed, board, and all extras except attendance," may perhaps be a matter for some anxiety.
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