17 MAY 1879, Page 24

Up the River, from Westminster to Oxford. With 140 Illustrations,

and a Map. (Waterlow and Sons.)—This is a good guide-book, though it might well have been put into a more convenient form. The account of scenery and localities is good, and here the tourist will find the volume really useful. The angling information does not seem to us so valuable. There is a list of fishing stations and fisher- men, but we observe that the name of the best fisherman at Henley- on-Thames is not given. Indeed, when the preface says, "we have pointed out the 'deeps,' 'swims,' and 'pitches' most resorted to by bank, punt, and fly-fishers," it proposes to do what would be barely possible in a work of the kind, and what is certainly not done here. A "pitch," as all practical fishermen are aware, must be generally known to a yard. Still, a writer thoroughly acquainted with the river, and who has acted as his own fisherman, might give some useful hints, not, indeed, marking the " pitches " (for this would require a map of a yard to the mile), but indicating their whereabouts. This would require to be done in a book by itself.