as been said by competent judges, sometimes
imperturbably recording two conflicting opinions, and leaving the reader
to decide. The range of quotation is indeed remarkable, from Dean Milman
to Ouida, including many writers too little known in this country, such
as Burckhardt, Ampere and Street.

But it is not to the actual traveler only that these volumes will be of
use and give pleasure. They are not bad preparatory reading for those
who are going abroad, suggesting what should be studied beforehand; they
will be dear to those who sit within the blank limits of a home in this
raw New World trying to revive the fading outlines and colors of scenes
which, though unforgotten, tend to mingle with the visions of Dreamland;
and they are capital wishing-carpets for those who can travel only in
fancy. In the introduction there is an excellent passage on the
distinctive differences between the great Italian cities: "Each has its
own individual sovereignty; its own chronicles; its own politics,
domestic and foreign; its own saints, peculiarly to be revered--patrons
in peace and protectors in war; its own phase of architecture; its own
passion in architectural material, brick or stone, marble or
terra-cotta; ...its own proverbs, its own superstitions and its own
ballads." Mr. Hare contrives to convey much of the characteristic
impression of each town. Pretty little wood-cuts are called in to his
aid, but the best illustrations of his text are the poetical quotations
and exquisite prose-bits from Ruskin, Swinburne, Symonds and others
whose pens sometimes turn into the pencil of a great painter. The
author's own descriptions are extremely faithful and charming. To those
who have made the journey from Florence to Rome a single fine page of
the introduction brings back a thrill of that long ecstasy. In these few
quiet words he spreads Thrasymene before us: "It has a soft, still
beauty especially its own. Upon the vast expanse of shallow pale-green
waters, surrounded by low-lying hills, storms have scarcely any effect,
and the birds which float over it and the fishing-boats which skim
across its surface are reflected as in a mirror. At Passignano and
Torricella picturesque villages, chiefly occupied by fishermen, jut out
into the water, but otherwise the reedy shore is perfectly desolate on
this side, though beyond the lake convents and villages crown the hills
which rise between us and the pale violet mountains beyond
Montepulciano."