16 JUNE 1928, Page 17

What memories of sunlit days and turquoise skies does not

the Hoghunters' Annual (from Capt. Nugent Head, 94 Piccadilly, 7s. 6d.) recall to this reviewer The curving stream of Shahi in the l3areilly country, which we are glad to see is being reopened, the grass lands of Rampur, whose hospitable Nawab is still helping sportsmen ; Mr. Cotton still at Etah ; Mr. Brayne still in the Delhi country and combining killing his 300th bear with wonderful welfare work for the villagers. "The angels keep their ancient places" and those jhow-carpeted paradises of Muttra and Meerut must be in full swing now. Blue-books and reports are all very well, but a week's hunting along the Ganges or Jumna will give you a truer picture of the real India, and of its humble as well as more highly placed sportsmen, than any amount of statistics ; and if we can no longer follow the mighty boar ourselves we may at any rate read and mark and learn—more things, incidentally, than the number of pig killed, for between the lines you will find a breath of the authentic open-air Incni, and a good fellowship between Indians and English more real than that induced over official tea-cups. In this Annual, Colonel Norton gives a delightful picture of the two Meerut shikaris, Purnu and Babu, nephews of Lachman, who was shikari at the outbreak of the Mutiny. Colonel Faunthorpe, who has speared more panther than any living man, writes of old-time pigsticking. There are prefaces by Sir Robert Baden-Powell and General Waldrop and an introduction by Sir William Birdwood. All pigstickers will buy this volume, all horse-lovers should do so, and any saddler, tailor, or sporting equipment maker with any sense will advertise in succeeding issues. Congratulations to the two editors (one won the Kadir Cup last year) on getting together so many vivid and interesting articles.