The Sportsman’s Library.
Sir Walter Gilbey has issued a new and revised edition of the suggestive pamphlet[[16]] which appeared soon after the close of the South African War, when the enormous losses sustained among the horses were still fresh in the mind of the country. The main objects of Sir Walter’s scheme are, to secure a sufficiency of the best of the three-year-old horses that come into the market each year for the Army, and house them in specially organised depôts, to be handled and trained until old enough to be issued as cavalry, artillery and transport remounts; and to create the nucleus of a staff of officers to whom the difficult and delicate task of buying horses may be entrusted in time of emergency. The scheme suggested appears to us eminently feasible, and also one that could be put to the test of practical experience at insignificant cost to the national exchequer. Sir Walter does not urge that his scheme in its entirety, involving the creation of ten depôts near various selected centres in the kingdom, should be adopted at once. He suggests that three or four of these depôts, each capable of receiving 400 horses, should be established and given a few years’ trial. This is sound business, and inasmuch as the capital cost of each depot is only £25,000, while the Army estimates each year, nowadays, fall little short of thirty millions of money, there is nothing in the scheme that need alarm the most economically minded war minister. As Sir Walter points out, recent years have seen a vast increase in mechanical traction, whereby great numbers of horses of a very useful class for military purposes have been done away with; the sources of supply formerly made accessible by the registration system have been thus much reduced; and the question of Army remounts, always a difficult one, is likely to become even more difficult in the future. We are quite of Sir Walter’s opinion that the step taken by the authorities in paying “market price” for horses means little more than a reduction in the standard of quality. Five-year-olds, fit to carry our cavalry and draw our guns, are not to be had for an average price of £43 16s. 8d. If our troops are to be properly mounted we must give them the best; and Sir Walter’s scheme, whereby young horses may be bought and kept at the public charge for a year or two, is, in our judgment, the best means of getting the best that could be devised.
Few men in England have wider experience of hounds and hunting than Mr. Richardson; he mentions, incidentally, in his brief preface, that he has learned what he knows in “nearly half of the English hunting countries.” He has, therefore, strong claims to be heard when he puts pen to paper. His book[[17]] is a small and unassuming production, but it contains a vast amount of sound advice, delivered in a straightforward, sportsmanlike fashion that lends it weight. The tone of the whole book appeals to us; the author has the gift of writing in a direct and intimate strain which conveys to the mind of the reader that he personally, and he only, is being addressed. And inasmuch as the book was penned for the guidance of boys, girls, and hunting novices of larger growth, this method is peculiarly appropriate. Mr. Richardson seems to have kept an eye on the rising generation as it appears at the covert-side and in the wake of hounds, and his observations on conduct and deportment are very much to the point. The chapters headed “Threefold Duties” and “Duties to the Field” might fitly form a sort of Saturday Catechism in which indulgent parents should require their offspring to be letter perfect before they are allowed to go out with hounds. Admirably practical, too, are the observations on “Costume and Equipment.” Mr. Richardson is a martinet in the matter of hunting dress, and requires that “every boy and girl and every man and woman who hunts should be as neat as a pin all over.”
We also find ourselves very much in accord with him concerning the observance of hunting etiquette in the so-called “provinces” by comparison with the more fashionable shires. In the latter we have more than once seen the man who, for the public weal, dismounted to open a gate, left behind, if not nearly carried away by the crowd while endeavouring to regain his saddle, and we have never seen a similar proceeding in a “provincial” country. Again, we are in accord with him when he affirms that “four-fifths of the hunters in the kingdom are, when in really good condition, quite fit enough to hunt twice a week.” Of course, as the incipient solicitor said, “It all depends,” but we are of Mr. Richardson’s opinion that the large majority of hunters could not only do more than they are usually asked to do, but would be much better off with more work than they get in the orthodox three days a fortnight—always provided they are fit.
COCKER SPANIELS.
By permission of the publishers of “The Sporting Spaniel.”
The whole book is that of a wise and thoughtful hunting man, who not only knows his subject from the very bottom, but can use his knowledge for the benefit of others in direct and convincing language. Masters of Hounds who suffer from the perennial Christmas school-boy and the cocksure hunting novice should rise up as one man and bless Mr. Richardson for that he has in a small half-crown book put forward lucidly the whole duty of the hunting man towards himself, his neighbour, and the hounds. We most cordially recommend it to the notice of the parent, guardian, and to the family coachman who may be entrusted with the duty of escorting the young master or mistress out hunting.
We have received a copy of “The Polo Annual (for) 1906.”[[18]] This handy little work is now so well known that we need hardly do more than mention the fact of its timely publication. It contains the Hurlingham Recent Form List, rules and bye-laws, information about measurement of ponies, committee lists, details of tournaments, club directory, information about the conveyance of ponies by rail, and various other matters connected with the game. It is a book indispensable to the polo player.
CLUMBER SPANIEL.
By permission of the publishers of “The Sporting Spaniel.”
There is a decided “boom” in dog books just at present. Messrs. Phillips and Cane have added to the large library of these a small but comprehensive and well-written volume[[19]] on the spaniels, a class of sporting dog which of late years has again received a meed of the attention it deserves. We say “of late years,” as the authors in their very interesting and suggestive first chapter show us how important a part the spaniel played in the sport of our ancestors two and three centuries or more ago. They are probably right in their assertion that there is no variety of dog which can claim higher antiquity than the spaniel. The Irish water, English water, springer, cocker, coloured field, Clumber, black field and Sussex breed is dealt with in turn; the cocker and black field varieties receiving the greatest attention. The springer is the oldest of the several breeds, and from him we derive our field spaniels of the present day. The cocker, for which Mr. Phillips appears to have a preference, is one of the oldest recognised breeds, and he is of opinion that the modern type more nearly approaches the old-fashioned dog than its progenitor of twenty years ago; a circumstance traceable perhaps to the increased attention its growing popularity has earned for it. The same would seem to be true of the Clumber, whose history, so far as England is concerned, is traced to the presentation by the Duc de Noailles of a number of spaniels to Henry, second Duke of Newcastle, about the end of the eighteenth century. No variety has been more carefully bred than the Clumber, and its antiquity is proven by the fidelity with which the characteristics of the breed perpetuate themselves. The authors are well known as authorities on spaniels both at field trials and on the show bench; the former, instituted in 1899, have proved a great success, and we share the confidence of Mr. Cane that their influence will be in every way beneficial. The book, which is well and straightforwardly written, contains a mine of information concerning the best individual dogs of the day which have come under the notice of the authors. The illustrations, from old pictures and from photographs, are both interesting and helpful.
The third divisional volume of Professor Wortley Axe’s great work[[20]] is now before us, and the contents maintain in every respect the standard of merit established by the two preceding volumes. This volume deals with certain classes of disease to which equine flesh is liable, namely, diseases of the urinary organs, the nervous system, the absorbent system, organs of circulation and respiration, very few of which the horseowner should attempt to treat on his own responsibility. Perusal of the professor’s pages will be of assistance to him in describing symptoms; but this section of the work appeals more especially to the veterinary surgeon. It needs no knowledge of the surgical art, however, to appreciate the remarkable clearness of the diagrams and drawings with which the work is illustrated. Professor Wortley Axe’s book gives fair promise of being, when complete, the most comprehensive work on the horse in the language.
From the Gresham Publishing Company we have received a “Dissected Model” showing in ingenious and convenient shape the development of the teeth of the horse from early foal-hood to advanced age. The coloured drawings show the mouth at various ages, and individual teeth, whole and in section, to show the effect of wear at different ages. A most useful publication, from which the young horseowner may learn how to correctly age a horse after half an hour’s attentive study.
The fox furnishes the text for the next book[[21]] on our table. Mr. F. W. Millard, as Secretary to the Gamekeepers’ Association, approaches the animal in a spirit different from that exhibited by Mr. Dale in the work noticed last month, but his aim is the praiseworthy one of showing that the protection of foxes is quite compatible with the preservation of game. There are people, we fear, to whose minds it is not possible to carry this conviction, but, if it were within the region of possibility, Mr. Millard’s temperate and well-balanced arguments would accomplish it. The author is a naturalist, and has made the habits and ways of foxes a special study; and while we find in his pages no single word against which the fox-preserver might protest, we find a very great deal of which he must cordially approve. The protection of sitting birds, naturally, is a matter to which prominence is given, and for this purpose Mr. Millard suggests numerous methods—conspicuously the use of renardine and discs painted with luminous paint—the latter, of course, are open to the objection that they may attract human poachers while scaring the fox; but with the gamekeeper must remain the onus of keeping these at a distance. His methods of protecting the pheasant-rearing field seem to us also very sound, as do his suggestions for the management of hand-reared pheasants when turned out. He is resolute in his opinion that the mangey fox is the worst foe of winged game. “Its affliction permits it little rest and it is constantly on the hunt, day and night”: his advice to the keeper to retain the carcase of a mangey fox, if he destroy one, and show it to some responsible person is judicious. We may particularly recommend to the notice of those who seek to promote hunting the chapter on the management of a vixen and her cubs. Mr. Millard’s system entails a certain amount of trouble, it involves some study of the habits of the individual vixen, but we cannot doubt that the plan of ascertaining her favourite foraging direction, and putting down food for her at the farthest point she is likely to reach when on her nightly hunt excursion, should be distinctly beneficial to all concerned. The author maintains that “a steel trap can be used without the slightest danger to foxes,” and he sympathises with the keeper who is expected to preserve game in a hunting country without using it. The use of steel traps in such wise that they shall be innocuous to foxes is one of the minor sciences, and Mr. Millard’s advice on the subject is well worth careful study. His book is that of a practical man who knows his subject thoroughly, and the game-preserver will be well advised to present a copy of it to his keeper, with injunctions to “read, mark, learn, and digest.”
A man who has fished for seventy years, and that in the best salmon and trout waters of Scotland and England, with occasional visits to Germany, must have something to say worth the telling; and Mr. Barrington’s book[[22]] is one of the most enjoyable on angling we have read for a long time. The capture of an undersized trout in his eighth year was the predisposing cause of his affection for the rod, and he has been a fisherman ever since, devoting to the sport, as we gather, every day he could escape from the toils of the Foreign Office. His book is somewhat discursive, but this only adds to its attractions: he ranges from the Ilm in Germany to the Tay, thence to the Hampshire Avon, from the Findhorn to the Tweed, Garry, or Costello in Connemara; but whereever he takes us he is always the same entertaining and instructive companion full of reminiscence and idea, of helpful suggestion and useful hint. His long experience enables Mr. Barrington to institute comparisons between the salmon and trout-fishing to be obtained in his early days and the present time, and notwithstanding the wonderful days of sport he has enjoyed in comparatively recent times on the Tweed, he is of the opinion that our fathers had better sport in all departments than is vouchsafed to us, save in salmon-fishing; he believes that bigger fish are killed nowadays than used to be taken half a century ago. No doubt he is quite right; on streams where salmon and trout are less numerous than they used to be within easy memory, they run larger. Mr. Barrington is a member of the broad-minded school of anglers. He recognises the superiority of the dry-fly method for trout, as he prefers the fly for salmon; but he does not on that account disdain the worm or minnow for the one, nor the prawn for the other, and is at pains to make clear his conviction that one method may, under given circumstances, be quite as sportsmanlike and demand every whit as much skill as another. The circumstance that the author has, during his long career, known many famous public men adds much to the interest of his pages. The late Duke of Roxburghe, he tells us, threw a better and longer salmon line than any man he ever knew. A quaint anecdote is that of Lord Palmerston, who was not an angler. He once asked the author how he “managed to direct the fly into the mouth of a grayling and not into that of a trout”; but we dare not begin quotation from a work so tempting. There is a very great deal in this book which is well worth careful study, for Mr. Barrington has been interested in the work of restocking and stream management, and has much to say on these subjects. The reader may open the book anywhere in the comfortable certainty of finding amusement, he will not find it an easy one to put down.
Mr. Roscoe has done well to publish this new edition of his very readable little work.[[23]] Like Mr. Barrington, he makes the rod his constant holiday companion, and as it has accompanied him on visits to Switzerland, the Black Forest, Tyrol and Normandy, as well as to more familiar waters in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, his “rambles” lack nothing of variety. His observations of the methods of the local sportsmen encountered are entertaining, if not particularly helpful; guidance, however, is not what the British angler abroad expects from the local expert. On the contrary, the local expert, so far as our experience goes, invariably reckons on the visitor for advice, which, perhaps, is not much to be wondered at. Anglers who cannot, for domestic reasons, make indulgence in their favourite the sole raison d’être of the summer holiday will do wisely to possess themselves of this work, which contains many and useful suggestions concerning the choice of resorts where the trout-rod may be brought into use. These are really far more numerous than the average Continental visitor is aware; and, under Mr. Roscoe’s guidance, some very attractive streams may be discovered.
Messrs. Hardy Brothers, of Alnwick, send us a copy of their “Angler’s Guide” for the current year. This work contains many useful hints on fishing, and indexed lists of every conceivable requirement in the shape of tackle and gear. We must give a word of praise to the very admirable coloured plates of trout and salmon flies.