Fresh Woods and Pastures New. By the Author of "An
Amateur Angler's Days in Dovedale." (Sampson Low and Co.)—We have to congratulate the author on more than one achievement, first on having written a very charming book, and secondly, on having made a great advance in the art of fly-fishing (the probability is that he is much more proud of the second than the first). He is properly modest, indeed, about his skill even now ; but when we find that he can throw a dry fly, even with the uncertainty of aim to which he confesses, he has made, it is clear, a considerable progress. Of the fifteen letters which the volume contains, about half refer more or less to angling. The Lug and the Terne, famous Herefordshire streams, have been this time the scenes of his prowess. Then he has some very pleasant chat about the sights and sounds of his "suburban garden," especially about the cats. "In a Menagerie" is a readable paper ; but why will so accomplished a writer use so very incorrect a phrase as "a collection of ferx naturke"? One would think that he fancied natura to have a secondary meaning of beast or creature, and naturx to be a nominative plural. Of course, ferx naturm can only be a genitive. Certain animals are said to be ferx natura., and no other usage is possible. The "Amateur Angler" is a very pleasant writer, whom we shall be always glad to meet. As he has never, he tells us, seen any one who has eaten a plover, the present writer wishes to assure him from frequent experiences, had in the Western Islands, that they are very good.
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