NAPLES PAST AND PRESENT.
Naples Past and Present. By Arthur H. Norway. With 40 Illustrations. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—" Vedi Napoli e poi more" is the cry with which we have closed this charming account of the antiquities, folk-lore, everyday life, and scenery of the neighbourhood of what Milton called "dead Parthenope's dear tomb," and its surroundings from the Phlegraean fields to "the buried majesty of Paestum." The author's pictures of Virgil "the Enchanter" at Posilipo, his Agrippina at Baiae, his Masaniello, and Fre Diavolo, are drawn from the original sources ; his Blue Grotto, Castellamare, and Salerno are full of colour and brio; at times he may be a little hysterical, as in hie vivid description of the matchless aquarium of Naples, which, he forgets to explain, is a subsidised German institution. By Mr. Morley the historian Guicciardini was lately "written down an ass." Our author is nearer the truth when he says—" one of the greatest and most interest- ing writers whom the world has known." Time was and we had our Sir William Hamilton, our Forsyth and Matthews. Mr. Norway's bibliographical notes show that the recent English literature on Naples, Pompeii, &c., is "a beggarly account of empty boxes." Even apart from Gregorovins, all the best books are " by Germans." Comparetti's classical work on Herculaneum appeared in 1883. Last year our author " cut its pages" in the British Museum—" a fact that says worlds about British scholarship." He remarks that the English tourist in Italy scouts "the idea of spending the price of a new bat-box" on the necessary books.
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