RiGornfa Venaticct. By M. O'Connor Morris. (Chapman an I Hall.)
—The author of this work is fond of apt quotation, but he has not thought fit to inscribe on the title-page as a motto two well-known lines which wo venture to think would be singularly appropriate, not only as giving the reader some clue to the character of the work, but also as explaining to a certain extent its raison (Tare, or raison de renaitre:— "'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name In print ; A book's a book, although there's nothing hit."
The volume under consideration consists of some four hundred and forty-nine pages (which we have conscientiously read), being thirty weekly letters, contributed by Mr. Morris to the Field newspaper, on the subject of Irish hunting ; and the greater part of these letters consists of the names, titles, and additions of those gentle. men who have the good-fortune to be known to fame—and to the Field correspondent—who have appeared in the hunting- fields of Ireland during the last year or so. To these gentlemen, and possibly their intimate friends and relations, the weekly reports which appeared in the Country Gentleman's Newspaper may have boon of some interest; and those of them who desire to have those hunting records in a form at once more permanent and more portable, may buy and even read the neat and creditably got-up volume entitled Hibernia Vinatica. There will be found recorded, for instance, that,—
" Amon& those whom fashion and novelty had not drawn away from Kildare and its hunting-grounds were Lord Clonmell, the Hon. T. Scott, Mr. W. Forbes, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Hon. Major Lawless, Captain and the Hon. Mrs. Candy, the Baron do Rebook, Colonel Forster, Captain Wakefield, R.N., Lord Oranmore, Mr. and Mrs. More O'Farrell, General Seymour, Captain Ward Bennett, Mr. Roberts, Captain Beresford, a detachment of tho 7th Dragoons and the Royal and Horse Artillery from Newbridge, Szc. ; Captains Trench and Mansfield, General and Captain Irwin, Mr. Charles Hamilton, Captain do Mont- morency, Captain Gresson, Mr. Percy and Lady Annette la Touche, Captain R. Barton, Captain Fortescue Tynte, Mr. and Miss Moore, Mr. Linde, and Mr. Beasley (on Montgomery II.), the Misses Kennedy and Owen, Miss O'Kelly, and Mr. Thunder, with a great many more leal men and true, loyal to their hunt and their• own hunting-grounds."
The only thing wanted to make the book perfect is a complete index of the names of persons mentioned, so that Captain the Hon. Gustavus Lambaste may see at once where and how often he is alluded to in the volume, without being compelled, as at present, to waste his valuable time in reading through the names of some thousands of other dis- tinguished individuals, before he can be quite sure that he has seen every notice of his own appearance.
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